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The Memorial Bridge at ISIilford. 



PETER PRUDDEN 

A STORY OF HIS LIFE 



AT 



NEW HAVEN AND MILFORD, CONN. 

WITH 

The Genealogy of Some of His Descendants 

AND 

AN APPENDIX 

CONTAINING COPIES OF OLD WILLS, RECORDS, LETTERS, 

AND PAPERS 



^ "• > I r I - I . » , I, , t, 



' *• > I I » » t 



> . 



BY 

LILLIAN E. PRUDDEN 

M 

1901 




THE LIBRARY O 

CONGRESS, 
Two CoHEs Recsiveo 

APR. 9 1901 

Copyright entry 

CLASS (XXXC. N». 

COPY 3. 



'' 






Copyright, 1901 

by 

Lillian E. Prudden. 



• • 



c • • •» 

c » * 
• • • * • 






THE TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE St TAYLOR COMPANY 
NEW HAVEN: CONN. 



PREFACE. 



In the leisure hours of a busy Hfe Mr. Henry J. 
Prudden, of New Haven, Conn., collected material 
for a History of the Prudden family, and, had he 
lived to continue his investigations, he would doubt- 
less have produced a complete and valuable book. 
The present volume is, largely, a compilation from 
his note books of the results of his careful researches 
into old records, papers and other sources of histori- 
cal and genealogical information in this country and 
in England. It has been arranged in appreciation 
of his labor, and with the hope of stimulating some 
future family historian to carry the work further. 

The characterization of the Rev. Peter Prudden 
is inserted as Mr. Henry J. Prudden gave it at the 
250th anniversary of the First Church in Milford, 
Conn., when he presented, on behalf of the donor, 
Mrs. Susan Prudden Beardsley, a tablet in memory 
of its first Pastor. This is done because it is so 
clear a picture of the qualities that marked the man, 



4 PREFACE. 

although it involves a measure of repetition in the 
more amplified sketch of Peter Prudden prepared 
for this book. 

The genealogical lists are complete only in the 
line of descent which includes the writer's own 
family. Copies of such old wills, papers and tomb- 
stone inscriptions as it is of interest to preserve, 
but which have no place in the historical account, 
are found in the Appendix. 



PETER PRUDDEN. 



The veil which obscures the Prudden name 
prior to the time when the Rev. Peter Prudden 
came to this country in 1637, is lifted once in the 
chronicles of the latest Danish kings of England. 
Here we learn that in the year 1042, King Hardi- 
canute died at a carousal in Lambeth Palace, 
where one of his nobles was celebrating the mar- 
riage of his daughter to *'Tovi, surnamed Prudan, 
a noble and powerful Dane."* 

Most of the histories of that time spell the name 
of this person "Pruden," but by some it was 
written 'Truda." It is impossible now to say 
whether this name continued during the next 
three hundred years, or those who bore it were 
descendants of this ''Tovi" or "Tobi" Prudan, or 
even, whether the 'Truddens" that began to be 
found in the sixteenth century are descendants 
of his. At different periods the English records 
so vary the manner of spelling the same name 

* Florence of Worcester's Chronicle. "Bohn's Library, p. '^ 
144, Manning & Pray," History of Surrey, Vol. Ill, p. 
461. 



O PETER PRUDDEN. 

that it would not be surprising if as time passed 
this one had been completely altered. A con- 
tinuous line of descent may have followed 
down through the names of Prudde, Prudow, 
Prothowe, Proddehowe, Prudhon, and a dozen 
other similarly sounding names. "^ 

The derivation and meaning of the name is 
uncertain. One writer says it means the ''proud." 
Another,! interpreting English Surnames, says, 
''We now talk of a 'prude' as one who exag- 
gerates woman's innate modesty of demeanor. 
Formerly it denoted the virtue pure and untrav- 
ested. The root of the Latin 'probiis,' excellent, 
still remains in our Prudhommes, with those more 
commonly corrupted forms, Pridham, Prudames 
or Prudens, a sobriquet which formerly referred 
simply to the honest and guileless uprightness of 
the owners." 

The first distinct record of the name which 
has been found, since that of 1042, is in some 
early wills in Her Majesty's Court of Probate, 
in Somerset House in London, where it is spelled, 

* As an example of the transformation made in names, 
the following are nine different ways in which the same 
writer in the same paper has spelled the name of one 
Christopher Prewen — Prewne, Pruen, Pruene, Prowne, De 
Prune, Prunnen, Prowen and Prowyne. 

t Bardsley's English Surnames. 



I 



PETER PRUDDEN. 7 

as now, "Prudden."* All of these earlier Prud- 
dens seem to have been inhabitants of a district 
on the borders of Hertfordshire and Bedford- 
shire, twenty-five miles from London. 

The will of Thomas Pruddenf of Kingswal- 
den| mentions his three sons Peter, William and 
Edward. It also mentions John Prudden of 
New Wyle End,§ and further, Thomas Prudden 
of Breechwood Greene. || 

The parish register of Kingswalden gives the 
name of Prudden from its commencement to 
about the beginning of the seventeenth century. 
The latest record is 1620. Thereafter the name 
disappears. It is, however, found later in the 
neighboring parish of Hitchin Hestor, and in the 
nearer part of the adjacent county of Bedford, 
and has continued on there until now, giving 
ground for the surmise, that as this Kingswalden 
family disappeared about the time that Peter 

* Appendix III. 

t Appendix IV. 

i King's Walden is a scattered parish in Hertfordshire, 
four miles south of Hitchin, in the bounds of Hitchin and 
near the borders of Bedfordshire. 

§ New Wyle End is a parish in the township of East 
Hyde in Bedfordshire just over the borders from Hert- 
fordshire. 

II Breechwood Greene is a parish is the town of Being's 
Walden. 



8 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Prudden and his brother James came to this 
country, the disappearance may be due to their 
emigration. 

There is on the records of Kingswalden* the 

memorandum of the death of (''name 

illegible, but looks like Elizabeth") wife of James 
Prudden. As James Pruddenf of Milford, 
Conn., had a daughter Elizabeth, who married 
in 1648, and another daughter who married in 
1640, and as the wife of James Prudden is never 
mentioned in Milford records, it is possible that 
he came to this country a widower, with daugh- 
ters of marriageable age, and that the record at 
Kingswalden chronicles the death of his wife. 

While we know little of the life of Rev. Peter 
Prudden before he arrived in Boston, in com- 
pany with Mr. John Davenport, Mr. Theophilus 
Eaton, and the other founders of the New Haven 
Colony, we can easily conjecture some of the 
influences that surrounded his boyhood, and early 
manhood. Born three years before the death of 
Queen Elizabeth, while Shakespeare was still 
writing plays, and while the Protestant Reforma- 
tion was not yet a century old, the political, intel- 
lectual and religious ferment of the times must 

* Appendix II. 
t Appendix I. 



PETER PRUDDEN. 9 

have been felt in his environment. History was 
being made in those days. The Gunpowder 
Plot was discovered when he was five years old. 
The first settlement was made in Virginia when 
he was six. Imprisonments, fines, mutilations and 
martyrdoms for teaching and preaching outside 
the National Church sent the Pilgrims secretly 
across the Channel to Holland, when he was 
seven. The Mayflower sailed from Southamp- 
ton when he was nineteen. He grew to manhood 
during the years of alarm and despair because of 
the follies and tyrannies of James. The spirit of 
adventure was in the air. The stories of Drake, 
Raleigh and Smith had already thrilled many 
English hearts with romantic ideas of the un- 
known sea and the unexplored wilderness of the 
new world. Probably the Bible, in the Geneva 
version, the "Breeches Bible," * was the strong- 
est literary and moral influence of his life. As 
Cambridge was near his home and Puritan in its 
tendencies, he may have been educated there, 
though his name does not appear in any lists of 
graduates of that University. f 

* So called from its rendering of Genesis 3:11, where 
Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together and "made them- 
selves breeches." This Bible was in general use for half a 
century after the King James version was issued in 161 1. 

t Appendix III. 



lO PETER PRUDDEN. 

For sixteen years after Peter Prudden reached 
maturity, he remained in England, preaching, 
according to tradition, in both Yorkshire and 
Herefordshire, and, Hke many other ministers 
who came to this country during the great Puri- 
tan emigration between 1 629-1644, acquired 
such influence as a preacher that a company of 
his own people were willing to emigrate with 
him. These ministers were men of ^'fidelity, 
ability and learning,"* the best stock of the 
mother country, not fanatics, but practical Eng- 
lishmen of good-sense, and brave hearts, who 
had gained from their Bibles both religious fer- 
vor and a longing for freedom. Civil and relig- 
ious liberty were more and more menaced. A 
standing army, burdensome taxation, and a 
government without Parliament, created increas- 
ing anxiety and alarm. 

There is no good reason for supposing that 
Mr. Prudden was a Separatist (or Congrega- 
tionalist) until he reached America. He had 
probably known Mr. Davenport and watched his 
struggle for freedom of thought in the estab- 
lished church. He may not have been involved 
in the same persecution, but similarity of calling 

* "Genesis of New England Churches," by Leonard 
Bacon. 



PETER PRUDDEN. II 

and views gave him knowledge of the plans of 
Messrs. Davenport and Eaton, which he naturally- 
shared with his Herefordshire friends.* That 
Mr. Prudden had thought of some such enterprise 
for two years, at least, and that he was esteemed 
fitted for leadership, is indicated by the record of a 
committee for the settlement of Providence Island 
(one of the Bahamas), which is now kept among 
English State papers of 1635 in Her Majesty's 
Public Record Office, and which says, "We have 
hope of Mr. Prudden, a minister consenting to 
go over," and later it mentions "A minister and 
three servants." 

It should be remembered that the motives of 
Mr. Davenport's company were different from 
those which had led men for forty years to brave 
the perils of the sea and the wilderness. Neither 
hunger for gold, thirst for conquest, desire for 
adventure, nor even religious separation alone 
was their object. Unlike earlier settlers, they 
sought no charter, or grant of land from the 

* Atwater's "History of New Haven" says of the men 
from Herefordshire: "The particular events that moved 
them to leave their homes at this time are yet to seek; 
but it is known that they left under the influence and 
guidance of Peter Prudden, a clergyman, well-known to 
them by reputation, if not by personal knowledge of him 
as preacher and pastor." 



12 PETER PRUDDEN. 

crown. Theirs was a commercial enterprise 
undertaken by men who desired also to form a 
Christian Commonwealth. In seeking a new 
home in America they were not trying- a new 
experiment, for the possibility of successfully 
battling with the dangers of the ocean, the forest, 
and the Indians, had already been demonstrated. 

The ship ''Hector," which was first engaged, 
was a vessel of only 250 tons, and since she could 
carry but 100 passengers, was altogether too 
small for the large number which, owing to 
Laud's persecutions, wished to emigrate with this 
company ; therefore, a consort which was said to 
have been called the ''Martin," was secured. 
Even then, however, some of the shareholders 
were unable to sail until two years later. 

It was no light undertaking to make their 
arrangements in secret consultations, and so 
adjust financial affairs as to secure transportation 
for themselves and their goods, without attract- 
ing the attention of those who would gladly have 
hindered them. Since several were men of posi- 
tion and wealth, and a royal edict prohibited 
emigration to holders of property without permits, 
many probably embarked under assumed names. 
Mr. Atwater says,* "If ever lists of the passengers 

* Atwater's "History of New Haven," page 54. 



PETER PRUDDEN. 13 

of the 'Hector' and her consort are found, they 
will probably not contain the names of John 
Davenport or Samuel Eaton"; nor, we may add, 
the name of Peter Prudden. Shortly afterwards, 
a proclamation was made requiring more care- 
ful certificates from all emigrants, particularly 
men of wealth, and this new proclamation is 
supposed to be due to the knowledge that so 
many such men went on these ships. 

We know nothing of their voyage, save that 
they sailed in the spring of 1637, but we can 
imagine some of the discomforts of the crowded 
cabins in the small vessel, the limited variety of 
fresh food, the seasickness, the homesickness, and 
danger of disease during the six weeks, which 
was the shortest possible time of crossing the 
ocean. The cost of the passage was £5 for each 
individual and £4 for each ton of goods. 

Coming, as they did toward the end of "the 
Puritan exodus,"* during which 26,000 people 
reached New England, they had no such hard 
experiences as many of their predecessors. Well 
established colonies already existed at Plymouth, 
Salem and about Boston, in which dwelt many 
old friends with hospitable homes. Two years 
before, Hooker, following pioneers at Windsor 

* John Fiske, "Beginnings of New England." 



14 PETER PRUDDEN. 

and Wethersfield, had founded the Connecticut 
colony at Hartford ; Roger WilHams had started 
his plantation on Narragansett Bay; while farther 
away were the thriving Dutch trading posts at 
Albany and New York, and the English settle- 
ment in Virginia. There was as yet no jealousy 
of the English Colonies on the part of either 
Spain or France. Only a few feeble French out- 
posts existed on the Bay of Fundy and the St. 
Lawrence. The brave Spanish missionaries and 
explorers, who had already for a century enacted 
some of the most romantic chapters in American 
history, were too busy with their own discov- 
eries, conquests and colonies, from Mexico north- 
ward over nearly half the present territory of the 
United States, to care what Anglo-Saxons were 
doing on the Atlantic seaboard. Only the 
Indians, just defeated in the Pequot War, and 
the primeval forests barred the way to their free 
choice of a place for settlement. 

Naturally a company so well equipped, and 
containing so many citizens valuable for any 
community, received a hearty welcome at Bos- 
ton, where they landed June the 26th, 1637. The 
Colony of Massachusetts Bay at once offered 
them opportunities and inducements to settle. 
As regards those in whom we are particularly 



PETER PRUDDEN. 15 

interested we find in the town records of Dedham, 
Mass.* 

"nth of Ye 6th month 1637." 

"It is ordered yt if Mr. Peter Prudden, with 
fifteen more of his company shall please to come 
unto us, they shall have enterteynment, and lotts 
accordingly, to be lay'd out to them, bringing 
stiffcat from the magistrates, as is required." 
Also, "Ye 28th of ye ninth month, 1637." 
"Whereas, Mr. Prudden, with fifteen more of his 
company, had liberty given to come and have lotts 
in our towne yf they soe pleased, but not having 
since understood anything of their acceptance, we 
nowe hold ourselves noe longer to stand engaged 
to them therein." 

As this record was made only about six weeks 
after the arrival of the "Hector," it is probable 
that Mr. Prudden preached in Dedham during 
that summer. We are not sure whether the invi- 
tation to locate in Dedham was declined because 
of a desire to avoid the religious controversy that 
was disturbing Massachusetts, regarding the 
peculiar doctrines of Ann Hutchinson, or because 
of dissatisfaction with the "lotts" offered them, 
or, as is more likely, because of a cherished hope 
*Vol. I, p. 41. 



l6 PETER PRUDDEN. 

that they might better carry out their own ideas 
elsewhere. It is certain, however, that the colo- 
nists who came by the Hector soon sent out an 
exploring party whose report of the sheltered bay 
and level meadows of Quinnipiac (afterwards 
New Haven) decided them to locate there in the 
following spring. There they secured the de- 
sired harbor for commerce, and land that could be 
made habitable without great effort in clearing 
forests. Mr. Prudden, like most of his compan- 
ions, must have spent that first winter in or near 
Boston. 

The date and place of Peter Prudden' s mar- 
riage are unknown, and it may have been one of 
the events of those winter months. Mr. Savage* 
affirms that his marriage occurred at Edgton, 
Yorkshire, a hamlet reached by a pleasant walk 
of two miles through the fields from Kirby Moor- 
side. This conclusion, for which there are no 
proofs, was probably based on the fact that the 
descendants of Peter Prudden and Joanna Boyse 

* Savage's "Genealogical Dictionary of New England," 
speaking of Peter Prudden, says, "We know nothing of his 
parentage or education. He left good estate here besides 
land in Edgton, County York, England, where perhaps he 
was born and it is certain that there he married his wife 
Joanna Boyse." 

See Fell's "Ecclesiastical History of New England," 
Vol. H, p. 88. 



PETER PRUDDEN. 17 

held inherited property at Edgton for more than 
one hundred and fifty years. The Parish register, 
which has been carefully searched, contains no 
record of the birth or marriage of either Peter 
Prudden or Joanna Boyse, indeed the name 'Trud- 
den" is not found in it. Certainly Peter Prud- 
den never preached there. Since, however, the 
name "Boyse" is frequent, it is probable that 
Edgton was the home of Mrs. Prudden's ances- 
tors, though the wills of her parents indicate that 
they lived in Halifax, Yorkshire, where John 
Boyse, her father, was a clergyman.* That the 
Boyses were a family of means, is shown by the 
wills, which provide a dowry of £200 for each 
daughter in addition to ''Landed Estate.'' From 
the mother's will we infer that Joanna Boyse was 
not married before 1631, and from the names of 
her two brothers mentioned in the will, we find 
a reason why the names ''Samuel," and "John" 
were given to her sons. One of her sisters was 
the wife of Rev. John Raynor, pastor of the 
church at Plymouth, Mass., from 163 7- 165 5, and 
later of Dover, New Hampshire.! In the 
absence, therefore, of any evidence that Joanna 
Boyse w^as married before leaving England, and 

* Appendix, V and VI. 

t Lane family papers. Appendix XIV. 



l8 PETER PRUDDEN. 

from the fact that her eldest child was born in 
1640, it seems probable that she crossed the ocean 
with her sister, Mrs. Raynor, before her mar- 
riage, and married Mr. Prudden in New England, 
though no record of their marriage has thus far 
been found. 

The next mention we find of Peter Prudden 
is at the time of the departure of the New Haven 
Company from Boston in April, 1638.* The 
voyage around through Long Island Sound, 
although occupying fourteen days, was far easier 
than the journey would have been by land 
through the forests. At New Haven the set- 
tlers sailed up the creek, which formerly flowed 
down through the valley traversed by Com- 
merce and Oak Streets, entering the harbour near 
where the Union Depot now stands. They dis- 
embarked not far from where they assembled on 
the 1 8th of April for their first Sabbath service. 
The site of the oak tree under which they met 
close by their landing-place is now marked by a 
tablet on the nearest house, at the corner of 

* Winthrop says, "Mr. Davenport and Mr. Prudden went 
by water, and with them many families moved out of this 
jurisdiction, to plant in these parts, being much taken by 
the fruitfulness of that place, and more safety, as they 
conceived, from a general governor who was feared to be 
sent out that summer." 



PETER PRUDDEN. I9 

George and College Streets. Mr. Davenport 
preached the sermon in the morning, and the his- 
torians, Hollister* and Lambert,t both state that 
Mr. Prudden preached in the afternoon, using 
as his text, Matt, iii, 3, ''The voice of one crying 
in the wilderness." Lambert says, "He insisted 
on the temptation offered by the wilderness, made 
such observations, and gave such directions and 
exhortations as were pertinent to the then state 
of his hearers." 

The number of persons in Mr. Prudden's 
family is recorded at this time as four, but as 
none of his children were born before 1640, his 
household probably included his wife and two 
servants. 

Since he and the Rev. Samuel Eaton as well 
as Rev. Mr. Davenport were in the New Haven 
Company, it is difficult to imagine any plan 
whereby they should all three have expected to 
be associated permanently in the ministry, 
although it was not unusual for a church to have 
one minister as pastor and another as teacher, 
but, as both Peter Prudden and his brother James 
received house lots in New Haven in the section 
assigned to the Herefordshire people, when the 

* HolHster's History of Connecticut, p. 94, Vol. I. 
t Lambert's History of New Haven Colony, p. 44. 



20 PETER PRUDDEN. 

original nine squares were laid out, it would seem 
that they, at first, intended to locate there.* 

During the summer of 1635, Mr. Prudden 
preached at Wethersfield, Conn., probably walk- 
ing or riding through the woods, or going by 
boat around through Long Island Sound and up 
the Connecticut River. It is not unlikely that 
the project of a separate settlement, which led 
a year later to his removal from New Haven, 
grew out of this Wethersfield visit. f When Mr. 
Prudden found new friends in Weathersfield 
ready to join old friends in New Haven, in start- 
ing another plantation, he would naturally prefer 
a church of his own. It has been suggested that 
this movement showed a desire for harmony quite 
consistent with Mr. Prudden's reputation as a 
"peacemaker," since troublesome disagreements 
were liable to occur in the conflict of opinions 
while a new state was being formed on the basis 
of allowing civil power to none but church mem- 
bers.'! 



* This house lot of Peter Prudden's was on George St., 
near where the Trinity Church "Old Ladies Home" now 
is. James Prudden's lot was near and the Herefordshire 
people were a little west. (For James Prudden, see Appen- 
dix I.) 

t See Atwater's History of New Haven, pp. 90, 91. 

X Mr. F. S. Cogswell of New Haven, in a lecture on John 
Davenport delivered January 9, 1898, said : 



PETER PRUDDEN. 21 

Whatever the real reason may have been, no 
unpleasantness seems to have been created by the 
decision to remove, and, apparently, Mr. Prud- 
den and Mr. Davenport agreed in their plans for 
an ideal state in which righteousness should pre- 
vail because its laws should be ''according to the 
rules of the Scriptures." This was the prelimi- 

"Mr. Prudden was inclined to the view of Davenport, 
but was anxious that whatever was done should be in the 
interests of harmony between all factions. He had come 
from Herefordshire with quite a company of followers who 
were devotedly attached to him. The Herefordshire men 
were agreed as to the form of government that would be 
most acceptable to them, but were inclined to go elsewhere 
and establish a colony of their own rather than remain 
and be party to a lasting disagreement. They went so 
far as to purchase a tract of land in what is now the town 
of Milford, but delayed removing until it was certain that 
such a step would be necessary. 

It was something more than a year before these con- 
flicting interests could be so adjusted as to permit of the 
/ formation of a government, or even a church, which would 
meet the approval of a majority, though services were 
regularly held. It was finally decided by the Herefordshire 
men that they would prefer a separate existence at Milford, 
with Mr. Prudden as their minister. I do not know 
exactly what Mr. Prudden's sentiments were, but I surmise 
that by this time he had become so well acquainted with 
Mr. Davenport's tendency to prefer his own way to all 
others, that he came to the conclusion that Milford would 
be none too far away from New Haven for comfort, in 
case a theological war should break out." 



22 PETER PRUDDEN. 

nary agreement that all had signed on their first 
arrival in New Haven. 

Land for a new settlement was formally pur- 
chased of the Indian sachem in February, 1639, 
when the sagamore placed a twig on a piece of 
turf and gave it to the English as a token that 
hereby he surrendered to them the land with all 
its trees and appurtenances. This purchase 
included all the region between New Haven and 
Stratford (now Hoosatonic) River, the Sound, 
and the brook that divides Orange and Derby. 
The price paid was six coats, ten blankets, one 
kettle, twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen 
knives, and a dozen small mirrors.* The Indian 
name Wepawoge was soon changed to Milford, 
because a convenient stream afforded facilities for 
a mill. No movement was made to occupy this 
territory until the next autumn, and the Here- 
fordshire people seem to have labored a second 
summer on their fields in New Haven, where 
three divisions of land had already taken place, in 
each of which a share was allotted to Mr. 
Prudden. 

The Milford church was organized at New 
Haven some weeks before the change of residence 

* Lambert's History of the Colony of New Haven, pp. 
85, 86. 



PETER PRUDDEN. 23 

was made.* The First Church of New Haven 
was also organized at the same time and place 
fourteen months after the arrival of the colonists. 
The leaders showed wisdom in thus waiting until 
the community, which included both conforming 
and non-conforming Episcopalians, Presbyterians 
and Separatists or Congregationalists, was fairly 
settled, before deciding so important a matter as 
the form of church to be established. 

Each company chose seven of their numbers 
as "pillars," to whom was entrusted the prepara- 
tion of a covenant, which others must sign for 
admission to membership in the church. Mr. 
Prudden's name heads the list of the "seven 
pillars" of the Milford church as Mr. Daven- 
port's that of the New Haven church. 

Mr. Newman's barn, probably the most com- 
modious building yet erected, and standing near 
the corner of Grove and Temple Streets, was the 
meeting place for the large gathering that this 
occasion called out. 

The Milford Church Covenant, doubtless 
drafted by Mr. Prudden, may still be read in 
his fine but legible handwriting in the Milford 

* The account given by Cotton Mather of this event 
makes it appear that this ceremony may have lasted two 
days. Extract from Magnalia, page 39. 



24 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Church Records. See facsimile of which the 
following is a transcript : 

''The Church of Christ at Milford was first gathered at 
New Haven upon Aug 22, 1639. The persons first enjoyn- 
ing in the foundation were those whose names are next 
under mentioned. 

Peter Prudden, Zachariah Whitman, 

William Fowler, John Astwood, 

Edmund Tapp, Thomas Buckingham, 

Thomas Welsh. 

"The church covenant y* they entered into is hereunder 
written : 

" Since it hath pleased y® Lord of his infinite goodness 
and free grace to call us (a company of poor miserable 
wretches) out of y® world unto fellowship with himselfe in 
Jesus Christ, and to bestow himself upon us by an everlast- 
ing covenant of his free grace sealed in y® blood of Jesus 
Christ, to be our God, and to make and avouch us to be his 
people, and hath undertaken to circumcise our hearts, that 
we may love y® Lord our God, and feare him, and walk in 
his wayes : we, therefore, do this day, avouch y* Lord to 
be our God, even Jehovah, the only true God, the Almighty 
maker of heaven and earth, the God and father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ : and wee do this day enter into an holy cove- 
nant with y* Lord, and one with another, through y* grace 
and help of Christ strengthening us (without whom we can 
do nothing), to deny ourselves and all ungodliness and 
worldly lusts, and all corruptions and pollutions, wherein in 
any sort wee have walked. And do give up ourselves wholly 
to y* Lord Jesus Christ, to be taught and governed by him 
in all relations, conditions and conversations in this world ; 
avouching him to be our only prophet and teacher, our only 




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Facsimile of Peter Prudden's Handwriting. 



PETER PRUDDEN. 25 

Priest and Propitiation, our only King and Lawgiver. 
And we do further bind ourselves, in his strength, to 
walk before him, in all professed subjection to all his holy 
ordinances, according to y^ rule of the gospell, and also to 
walk together with his church and y® members thereof in 
all brotherly love and holy watchfulness, to y^ mutual build- 
ing up one another in Fayth and Love. All which y« Lord 
help us to perform, through his rich grace in Christ, accord- 
ing to his Covenant. Amen. 



> > 



This new colony of forty-five free planters with 
their families, in all about two hundred persons, 
started in September, 1639, through the woods 
west of New Haven, toward the place selected for 
beginning again their life as pioneers in the 
wilderness. The path they followed for ten miles 
was, at best, but an Indian trail, beset by sufficient 
difficulty to lead them to reward their guide, 
Thomas Tibbals, for his helpfulness with a ''free 
gift" of twenty acres of land. 

It is not difficult to picture the company of 
soberly dressed men, women and children; a few 
on horseback, but most of them on foot, filing 
along under trees just turning with autumn color, 
taking a last look at the familiar "Red Rocks"* 
and the waters of Quinnipiac harbor; shouting 

* The Dutch gave the name Rodenburg to New Haven 
from the marked reddish tint that appears in both East 
and West Rocks. 



26 PETER PRUDDEN. 

or running forward to keep the cattle from stray- 
ing; halting for rest by some brook, calling to 
each other or to venturesome children; discussing 
plans, and at length arriving weary, but hopeful 
at the site chosen for their new home. Here was 
a small harbor and salt meadows, and an abun- 
dant supply of clams and oysters for food. Such 
simple advantages as these determined the loca- 
tion of many early Connecticut towns. House- 
hold goods and farming implements had been 
sent by boat with the material for the ''common 
house" which was doubtless the first residence of 
both pastor and people. 

As the "Wepawoge" or "Mill river" and the 
West End brook furnished convenient water for 
the settlers and their cattle, their house lots were 
laid out in parallel narrow stripes on either side 
of these two streams. Each man paid his share 
of the expense of the purchase and settlement of 
the plantation, and, as in New Haven, all divi- 
sions of land were made in exact proportion to the 
sum paid by each planter. The first assignment 
gave about three acres to each one, with the 
exception of Mr. Prudden and three others, who 
had double lots comprising a little more than 
seven acres, as seen by the accompanying map. 
Each planter was to erect upon his lot a good 




PLAN OF 

The ORJGINALTCWN PLOT 



ILFOR 



PETER PRUDDEN. 2/ 

house within three years or it would revert 
to the town. At first the house lots were 
enclosed in a common palisade for security 
against the Indians, and no division fences were 
made until 1645, when most of the planters had 
built houses. 

For the next sixteen years the history of Peter 
Prudden is that of the town and church of Mil- 
ford, of which he remained the honored head until 
his death, in 1656. The home in which his nine 
children were born stood on a hillside sloping 
towards the little river. Here the well, which 
he doubtless dug, remains to-day as the only trace 
of his occupancy. The unpainted, peaked-roofed 
church, thirty feet square which was erected in 
1640* on the rising ground upon the opposite side 
of the river, was near enough for him to hear the 
drum that called the people together for service, 
or the voice of the sentinel who from the church 
turret warned them of impending danger. His 
garden furnished a place for the first interment 
which was necessary before a burial plot had been 

* Mr. Scranton in his manuscript history, see p. 29, tells 
us one way in which the expense of the meeting house was 
met was that, "The proprietors of the flock voted that all 
the money that the sheep let for, over the expense of the 
committee and the sheepmaster, should be paid into the 
town treasury towards building the meeting house." 



28 PETER PRUDDEN. 

selected.* In this same garden his brother 
James, his infant son Peter, and he himself, as 
well as many others, were buried. Land near by 
was afterwards purchased as a burying ground, 
and with various additions, still remains the Mil- 
ford cemetery. It is bounded on the south by the 
tracks of the New York, New Haven and Hart- 
ford Railroad, which formerly made a curve 
here to pass around it. Some of the old tomb- 
stones may be easily seen at the left just after the 
trains leave Milford station going East. 

Mr. Prudden received in addition to his first 
assignment, ''Thirty-three and a half" acres of 
"upland" and "twenty" of meadow, and later 
at different times, "twenty-five," "seven," "nine," 
"thirty-three," "six and a half" acres of meadow 
and each time he was given his choice of land. 
In 1649 ^^^- Prudden was granted liberty to take 
up as much land as he wanted adjoining his "half 
division." These allotments indicate the pro- 
portionate amount of his investment and show 
that it was neither the liberality of his people, 
nor his wife's English inheritance, that enabled 

* "Sarah, wife of Bro. Camp, died in childbed, 1645, being 
the last day of the week in the morning, and was buried 
in the evening in my garden." Peter Prudden in records 
of 1st Church, Milford. 



PETER PRUDDEN. 29 

him to make comfortable provision for his family 
and have an estate among the largest in the New 
Haven Colony.* 

In the list of Milford planters, of whom seven 
were older, and thirty-five younger than the min- 
ister, who himself was thirty-nine years of age, 
we find that the prefix "Mr." a special term of 
respect, was given only to Mr. Prudden and two 
others. 

A manuscript history of the settlement of 
the town, written in the early part of the nine- 
teenth century, by the Rev. Erastus Scranton, 
pastor of the church in North Milford, or Orange, 
and kept by the direction of his will with the town 
records, is particularly definite in items regarding 
the Pruddens, of whom his wife was one, and 
may have been based on family traditions. In a 
note, apparently quoted from an unknown writer, 
Mr. Scranton says of these original settlers, 
"They were eminent for their strict piety toward 
God; their strong and living faith in God; their 
fervent love, their flaming zeal for the Divine 
honor and interests; their watchfulness, prayer- 
fulness and patience; their conscientious regard 
for His Sabbath and institutions ; their delight in 
His word and ways; their frequent days of 

* Appendix XI. 



30 PETER PRUDDEN. 

humiliation and readiness to attend religious 
meetings; for sobriety, temperance and chastity; 
mortification and self-denial in regard to them- 
selves; their strict justice and righteousness in all 
their public and private concerns, their care in 
bringing up their families in the way of the Lord; 
their diligent and faithful discharge of relative 
duties in the family, the church and the commu- 
nity. Their single-heartedness and sincerity 
were such that their word was reckoned equiva- 
lent to a bond or written obligation, hence they 
took less care to tie one another by hand and 
seal." 

It was not until April 8, 1640, three years after 
he sailed from England and about seven months 
after the settlement, that Mr. Prudden was 
ordained pastor of the Milford church. He had 
been previously ordained in England, but it suited 
better the purpose and spirit of those who com- 
posed the new colony that the ceremony of ordi- 
nation should be administered by the church 
which he was to serve, rather than by any bishop 
or other ecclesiastical power. This ceremony 
was performed at New Haven, probably also in 
Robert Newman's barn, and in the presence of all 
his ministerial brethren, with the usual long ser- 
vice of preaching and prayer. As Puritan pre- 



PETER PRUDDEN. 31 

judice against ecclesiastical vestments did not 
condemn the scholar's gown, although it did the 
surplice as savoring of popery, we may imagine 
our ancestor and the other ministers present as 
wearing the plain black gown in which they ordi- 
narily preached. Mr. Prudden's own handwrit- 
ing, in which all the early Milford records were 
kept, has preserved for us a brief account of what 
must have been a solemn and important event in 
his history. 

"I, Peter Prudden, was called to the office of 
pastor of this church, and ordayned at New 
Haven, by Zachariah Whitman, William Fowler, 
Edmund Tapp, designed by ye church to that 
work: Zachariah Whitman being ye moderator 
for that meeting in a day of solemn humiliation, 
upon ye third Wednesday in April, 1640, being, 
I remember, ye i8th day of ye month."* 

Something of a student Mr. Prudden must 
have been, for even "boiling zeal" without 
mental labor could not satisfy a Puritan congre- 
gation which depended on its pastor for its chief 
intellectual and spiritual food. He was, how- 
ever, a man of affairs, rather than a scholarly 
recluse, or a theologian meditating only on prob- 
lems of divinity. He was a leader of men in an 

* Milford Church Records. 



32 PETER PRUDDEN. 

enterprise not wholly religious, a magistrate, till 
he declined holding that office longer, as well as 
the pastor of a church which was itself a state. 
Like his neighbors, Mr. Prudden was an investor 
in a company, and a settler, with his own farm 
and stock to care for, and his living to gain from 
the soil, though his people, instead of giving him 
a salary, are said to have planted and gathered 
his crops, and hauled his wood. Therefore, 
instead of poring over books, he had to wield 
the axe, and hoe, and plow, as did many New 
England clergymen more than a century later. 

The week-day life at Milford was that of a 
hard-working, and thrifty people, ambitious to 
have good homes, and profitable farms, no less 
than an ideal community centering about the 
church and its meetings. Though English views 
of rank formed an aristocracy at whose head were 
the governor, minister and the magistrates and 
their families, yet common interests and universal 
acquaintance united all classes. The monoto- 
nous life was broken not only by church-going 
on Sunday and Lecture days, but by corn-husk- 
ing, house-raisings and house-warmings, spin- 
ning bees, gatherings at weddings and funerals, 
and by training and election days with their 
sports of cudgel, back-swords, fencing, running, 



PETER PRUDDEN. 33 

wrestling, nine-pins and quoits. At these times 
everybody present, including the minister, par- 
took more or less of the liberally provided strong 
drinks. Soldiers were on duty every night, and 
men went armed to their work in the fields, — ^but 
there was never any serious attack upon this quiet 
village. 

With others, Mr. Prudden shared the common 
burdens, paid his portion of taxes, kept his fire- 
arms and ammunition in good order, though he 
was excused from standing guard, and set an 
example of a good citizen. Not merely the affairs 
of the church and the sorrows of his neigh- 
bors were his business, but the success of Bro. 
Fowler's mill, the quality of Jas. Rogers' bread, 
the raising of Mr. Treat's new house, the pro- 
gress of Dr. Gunn's patients and the means of 
public defense. When his friend George Alsop* 
has such ''weighty occasions in England" as to 
necessitate a "winter journey into the Bay," Mr. 
Prudden gives him a letter to his friend, John 
Winthrop, that he may help him with a guide to 
conduct him in the best and safest way "on 
his uncomfortable undertaking." When poor 
Hanna Spencerf is convicted at New Haven, Mr. 

* Appendix XII. Letter to John Winthrop, Jr. 
t Appendix VII. Records of New Haven Colony. 
3 



34 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Prudden is there and pays the fine of ten pounds, 
perhaps deeming it sufficient punishment for her 
that she must be present at the whipping post 
when her lover, WilHam Elhtt, is corrected. No 
doubt the farm, the hunt, the varied duties of 
the working day frequently required him to wear 
the homely garb of the pioneer, though at other 
times, this thrifty citizen preacher donned the 
clerical costume and appeared with his heavy gold 
seal ring on his finger and his silver-headed cane 
in his hand. 

Whether Joanna Boyse, the wife of Peter 
Prudden, left England already married to a man 
about to risk everything in a new enterprise, 
or crossed the sea unmarried with her sister, 
she was a woman of courage, and, as her subse- 
quent history shows, of energy and thrift. Some 
one has called the ministers' wives of that time 
the ''saints of the Puritan calendar." When 
one reflects upon the labor and hardship entailed 
upon women, who were responsible not only 
for making the garments of the family, but for 
the spinning and perhaps the weaving of the 
cloth ; who made the candles of bayberry or wax 
or tallow, the butter and the soap; who learned to 
prepare savory food from such hitherto unknown 
articles as clams, Indian corn and pumpkins, one 



PETER PRUDDEN. 35 

realizes that robust health and "faculty" must 
have been added to patience in the making of such 
"saints." Perhaps Mrs. Prudden had to make her 
Thanksgiving mince pies, as a later pioneer did, 
"with a filling of bear's meat and pumpkin sweet- 
ened with maple sugar and with a crust of corn- 
meal." Unstinted hospitality was expected from 
the minister's wife whether the guest was a pass- 
ing stranger or a friendly Indian, a visiting 
Colonial dignitary or one of the neighbors. She 
must therefore have had many duties besides 
those belonging to the mother of nine children. 

The household equipment was necessarily 
limited. The cooking was all done at an open 
fire-place and the window lights were only oil 
paper until the small diamond-shaped panes of 
glass began to be used in the homes of the 
wealthy. The floor of the kitchen, which was 
also dining and living room, was sanded and 
its furniture probably consisted at first of the 
unpainted table, settle and stools made by the 
Milford carpenter, the handy spinning wheel and 
the cradle. There was no tall clock, for even in 
New Haven we know of none until after Mr. 
Prudden's death. Some housewifely strength 
must have gone into the polishing of the pewter 
platters, basins and porringers that hung on the 



36 PETER PRUDDEN. 

wall together with the brass ladle, skimmer and 
warming-pan. The bread was baked at a com- 
mon bake house, and the huge oven was heated 
only for feasts. There was as yet neither tea- 
kettle nor tea. Milk, which the Rev. John Cotton 
said was ''the only cheap thing in New England, 
excepting ministers," and beer made by each 
family in its own brew-house, took the place of 
tea and coffee. 

The Milford planters were, at first, quite inde- 
pendent of any other part of the Colony, although 
their civil code was essentially similar to that of 
New Haven. The power of selecting magis- 
trates, dividing the land and managing the com- 
mon interests of the plantation, was in the church 
only. Finding themselves too weak, however, 
to lead an independent existence, they sought 
admission to the New Haven Colony. But dis- 
approval of their ''laxity" caused opposition to 
their admission because they had "taken in as 
free burgesses six planters, not in church fellow- 
ship." The difficulty was only adjusted when 
the Milford deputies promised that these 
unchurched free burgesses should not at any time 
be chosen deputies, nor vote at the election of 
magistrates, and that in future, no one should be 
admitted to citizenship except "according to the 



PETER PRUDDEN. 3/ 

New Haven plan." It is difficult to suppose that 
this "laxity" could have existed, if a tolerant 
spirit had not guided ministerial authority in 
widening the bounds of citizenship. There is 
more than a hint of such a spirit in a letter from 
Mr. Prudden to Richard Mather in 1651, in 
which he says on the subject of baptism, ''Touch- 
ing the desire of such church-member's children 
as desire to have their children baptized, it is a 
thing I do not yet hear practised in one of our 
churches. But, for my own part, I am inclined 
to think it cannot be justly denied, because their 
next parents (however not admitted to the Lord's 
supper) stand as complete members of the church 
within the church covenant, and so acknowledge 
that they might have baptism. Their children 
are also members by virtue of their parent's cove- 
nant and membership. Baptism cannot be denied 
them." Thus the dangerous heresy of "The 
half-way covenant" seems to be asserted. 

We know from the Cheever letter''' that Mr. 
Prudden took the long journey to Boston in 
1 65 1, for Mr. Cheever makes it the occasion of an 
appeal to his well-known kindly interest in the 
affairs of the whole Colony, bespeaking his influ- 
ence as a broad-minded and trustworthy man in 
securing fair judgment for him in New Haven. 
* Appendix XIII. 



38 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Like all people of Connecticut, Mr. Prudden 
was doubtless interested in the founding and 
maintenance of Harvard College, and it is worthy 
of note that three of the five graduates of the 
Class of 1668 were his son John, Zachariah 
Whitman, the son of his ruling elder, and Abra- 
ham Pierson, and first President of Yale, son 
of the Branford minister. No doubt he saw to 
it that the people of his parish paid the tax of 
corn, with which Harvard was first supported. 

Other ministers of the time were more promi- 
nent, and more noted than he, but the little we 
know of Peter Prudden warrants us in ranking 
him among the worthiest of the honored founders 
of New England. As visible fruit of his minis- 
try of sixteen years in Milford, we find the record 
of 204 baptisms, and 106 added to the church. 
The size of the church, however, in a community 
of 500 souls would by no means represent the 
extent of his influence. A man marked in those 
days of strong Puritan Divines as ''zealous," 
"pious," "able," and "peaceable," the best years of 
whose life were given to the new settlement, must 
have furnished assistance and encouragement, 
example and counsel that went far to secure the 
quiet and prosperous existence of the plantation. 

The cause of Mr. Prudden's premature death 



PETER PRUDDEN. 39 

in July, 1656 is unknown, but that it was a seri- 
ous loss to the young colony is abundantly evi- 
dent from contemporary history. In the lan- 
guage of Fell's Ecclesiastical History of New 
England,* ''his course had been dutiful and its 
termination blessed." The elaborate eulogy of 
him which Mr. Cotton Mather gives in the pon- 
derous English and Latin phrases of his Mag- 
nalia has furnished so many suggestions in 
regard to his character that we reprint it here. 

Extract from Mather^s Magnalia^ Book III, 

Chapter 6. 

^'Prudentkis The life of Mr 

Peter Prudden 

"That greatest of peacemakers, the Son of God, 
has assured us, Blessed are the peacemakers, for 
they shall he called the children of God. I am 
sure then, 'tis a blessed child of God, whose name 
is now before us; {Prudden shall we call him?, 
or, Prudent F), who besides his other excellent 
qualities, was noted for a singular faculty to 
sweeten, compose and qualify exasperated spirits. 
and stop or heal all contentions. Whence it was 
that his town of Milford enjoyed peace zvith truth 
all his days, notwithstanding some dispositions to 

* Vol. II, p. 88. 



40 PETER PRUDDEN. 

variance, which afterwards broke forth among 

them. 

God had marvellously blessed his ministry in 

England, unto many about Herefordshire, and 

near Wales; from whence when he came into New 

England, there came therefore many considerable 

persons with him. 

At their arrival in this country, they were so 
mindful of their business here, that they gathered 
churches, before they had erected houses, for the 
churches to meet in. There were then two fam- 
ous churches gathered at New Haven; gathered 
in t\NO days, one following upon the other; Mr 
Davenport's, and Mr Prudden's. And this with 
one singular circumstance, that a mighty ham 
was the place, wherein the duties of that solemn- 
ity were attended. Our glorious Lord Jesus 
Christ Himself being horn in a stable, and laid in 
one of those moveable and four-squared little ves- 
sels wherein they brought meat unto the cattel, 
it was the more allowable, that a church, which 
is the mystical hody of that Lord, should thus be 
born in a ham. And in this translation, I behold 
our Lord, with his fan in his hand, purging his 
floor, and gathering her wheat into the garner. 
That holy man Mr Philip Henry, being re- 
proached by his persecutors, that his meeting 



PETER PRUDDEN. 4 1 

place had been a ham, pleasantly answered, No 
new thing, to turn a threshing floor into a temple. 
So did our Christians at New Haven. 

The next year Mr Prudden, with his church, 
removed unto Milford; where he lived many 
years an example of piety, gravity, and boiling 
zeal, against the growing evils of the times. 

And though he had a numerous family, yet 
such was his discretion, that without much dis- 
traction, he provided comfortably for them, not- 
withstanding the difficult circumstances, where- 
with an infant-plantation was encumbred. 
He continued an able and faithful servant of the 
churches, until about the fifty-sixth year of his 
own age, and the fifty-sixth of the present age; 
when his death was felt by the colony as the fall 
of a pillar, which made the whole fabrick to 
shake. 

Like that of Piccart, now^ let our Prudden lie 
under this 

Epitaph. 

Dogmate non tantum fuit Auditoribus Idem 
Exemplo in Vita; jam quoque morte praeit." 

It remained for the eighth and ninth genera- 
tions from these first Milford planters to per- 
petuate their memory in a handsome bridge of 



42 PETER PRUDDEN. 

stone on the two hundredth and fiftieth anniver- 
sary of the settlement of the town. This bridge 
near the old mill, which spans the little steam 
that determined the locality of the town, is 
shown in our frontispiece. The inscriptions to 
Peter Prudden prominent on the right, and to 
Robert Treat, later Governor of Connecticut, on 
the tower on the left, commemorate the strongest 
secular and religious influences of the early days. 
Each of the massive stones that form the parapet 
of the bridge bears the name of some one of the 
families who under the guidance of these two men 
built themselves into the life of the historic old 
town. The Church celebration which occurred at 
the same time, was the occasion of the following 
address summarizing the character of the first 
pastor, by Henry J. Prudden, a descendant of 
the ninth generation. 

"At the celebration of this town held in the 
centennial year of 1876 the orator* of the day 
in closing a reference to Peter Prudden as the 
first pastor and leader in founding this colony of 
Milford, after quoting that portion of the epitaph 
before you that speaks of the death of Mr. Prud- 
den as 'the fall of a pillar which made the 
whole fabrick to shake,' said: Tt is a sad com- 

* A. L. Train of New Haven. 




n PRUDDEN 

IH MttroRO 

!SS8 

; H!S PATHS 
$TBA1GHT_ 








The Prudden Tablet, 



PETER PRUDDEN. 43 

mentary on one generation that the place where 
so mighty a pillar lies is unmarked and un- 
known.' No stone, no epitaph, no sign desig- 
nates the grave of Peter Prudden and no man 
knoweth his grave to this day. It is that what- 
ever of just reproach this thought may convey 
to the church he founded and to the descendants 
he left may be removed, one of those descendants 
has placed in this church this tablet bearing his 
name and has commissioned me to present it to 
you for your care and as a memento of him. 

It would be pleasant in doing this if we might 
bring the man before us this morning. No 
painted portrait of him, as in the case of Daven- 
port, exists, or it might have been copied on the 
tablet; yet better not, perhaps, for the body we 
are not so much interested in. It has too long 
ago gone to dust. But of the heart, mind, 
character and work we may with profit try 
to draw a portraiture, for their results still 
remain. It must necessarily be meagre and 
imperfect, with to some of you little that is new, 
a thing of shreds and patches, strung together 
with somewhat of justifiable conjecture, for fire 
and time and death have removed many of the 
means of knowing about him. 

Many first things and people are noted only for 



\ 



44 PETER PRUDDEN. 

their priority. He was the first pastor of this 
church, but he had much more, than simply being 
a pioneer minister, for which he should be remem- 
bered. He was in the first place a mature man 
when coming here — nearly forty years old — after 
a worthy service elsewhere in the earlier years 
of his life. 

He was an educated man. From what college 
or university he graduated we do not yet know, 
but we have the evidence not only of one who 
says that 'he received a thorough college course/ 
and of another who speaks of him as 'learned in 
the dead languages,' but also of his letters and 
other Avritings. He was a man of a certain influ- 
ence and position in England. We know of him 
as in orders in the church of England and as dis- 
turbed by the Ecclesiastical Courts for non-con- 
formity.* He is said to have 'comprised among 
his hearers in Herefordshire many persons of dis- 
tinction and wealth.' It is probable that shortly 
before coming here he was offered, and had urged 
upon him government appointment as a minister 
in the British colony at Providence Island. f 

He was a talented preacher and his sermons 

had great effect. One speaks of 'the remark- 

* Neal's History of New England, p. 214. 
t Calendar of State Papers at Her Majesty's Public 
Record office, for 1635. 



PETER PRUDDEN. 45 

able results of his pious labors and of his being 
driven from his station by persecution, whence 
he fled into New England/ 'His ministry was 
attended with uncommon success/ 'The Lord 
blessed his preaching to the conversion of great 
numbers of his hearers.' 'He was an animated 
and fervent preacher/ There are other verdicts 
of the same nature. 

He was a man who made and held warm per- 
sonal friends and followers. 'When he came 
into New England there came many considerable 
persons with him.''^ When he came into this 
country many good people followed him.' This 
band of followers seemed to have remained 
united through their affection for him. They 
were invited to various places in Massachusetts 
to settle. The records of Dedham show that 
land was apportioned there for Mr. Prudden and 
fifteen followers, which they did not accept. 
When they came to New Haven the same band 
seem to have settled together in and about the 
Herefordshire quarter and together they removed 
here. Atwater says: 'After they had belonged 
to the association for two years, after they had 
resided for some months in the new plantation, 
after some of them had built for themselves 

* Mather's Magnalia. 



46 PETER PRUDDEN. 

houses, and had left behind them the hardest of 
the hardships incident to such an enterprise, that 
they separated themselves from their associates, 
removed to Milford and settled in a town by 
themselves, with Prudden for their minister, 
evinces the strength and permanence of their 
attachment to the man whom they followed in 
leaving their homes in England.' Thus came 
the Herefordshire part of the founders of the 
town; but the other part were drawn here by 
an attachment to him, which though not so old 
was none the less strong. 

During the waiting for the settlement with the 
spirit that, even if it were not recorded that he 
w^as full of 'boiling zeal,'* would cause us to 
think him a zealous man, unwilling to be idle; 
he preached in Wethersfield, where again the 
attachment to him became so strong that many, 
leaving the homes they also had established, came 
from there to settle with him here. It is said; 
*Mr. Prudden brought with him to Milford, in 
addition to those who accompanied him from 
England, many who united themselves with his 
fortunes in this country;' and again: 'He was 
followed to Milford from Wethersfield by many, 
that they might enjoy his pious and fervent medi- 

* Extract from Mather's Magnalia. Appendix. 



PETER PRUDDEN. 47 

tations;' and still again: 'He had made such an 
impression on the people of Wethersfield during 
his short stay there that many of his hearers went 
with him to Milford and were among the princi- 
pal settlers of that town.' It was thus that Gov. 
Robert Treat, John Astwood, Jasper Gunn, Rev. 
John Sherman and others came here. It was an 
evidence of the attachment of Mr. Sherman, a 
minister himself of no mean attainments, that 
when invited to become colleague and teacher 
here he declined out of 'motives of delicacy' to 
Mr. Prudden."*" 

He was a public-spirited man. Winthrop 
says: 'He was useful in his place and of high 
esteem in the colonv.' He was elected one of 
the judges of the colony in 1640 and con- 
tinued until as is said : 'He excused himself from 
serving any longer in that capacity.' He is 
recorded as one of the deputies and spokesmen 
for the Milford Colony in their successful protest 
against the settlement of Derby. We find in the 
records of New Haven Colony invitations from 
the general court for him to preach on public 
occasions there, and when the request is made 
to settle the difference between Pequonnock 
Plantation and Milford, it is suggestively ad- 

* Frances* Hist, of Watertown, Mass. 



48 PETER PRUDDEN. 

dressed to ^Mr. Prudden and that plantation.' 
His advice was sought and highly valued outside 
his own and the New Haven colonies. A letter 
of Mr. Davenport's speaks of a council composed 
of the elders of the Hartford Colony and Mr. 
Prudden of New Haven Colony chosen to settle 
some of the differences of the Hartford Colony.* 
Mr. Hooker, in writing of a church trouble 
between minister and people, as far away as Ply- 
mouth, writes that both parties to the quarrel, 
officially and by private letter, invited Mr. Prud- 
den to come to them; and adds: 'I gave warn- 
ing to Mr. Prudden to bethink himself what he 
did, and I know he is sensible and watchful.' 
Cheever the famous schoolmaster who, when dis- 
ciplined by the church at New Haven, had 
removed to Ipswich, Mass., writes to him for 
friendly counsel and to justify himself in his 
opinion. 

He was a methodical man; whence it comes 
that the record in his own hand of the early estab- 
lishment of this church preserves dates, that sup- 
ply their loss at New Haven and in other ways 
as well make the records of this town a model. 
The first covenant of the infant colony of Mil- 
ford, which he drew, is still preserved and reads 

* Collection of Conn. Hist. Soc. 



PETER PRUDDEN. 49 

as if, though divorced from it, there still rang 
in his ears the rituals of his English home and his 
mother church. 

That he was a man of thrift and business 
capacity is evinced by his will, which bequeaths 
a handsome property for those days, accumulated 
mainly in this country, and by the record that, 
*'He had a better faculty than many of his cloth 
to accommodate himself to the difficult circum- 
stances of the country so as to provide comfort- 
ably for his numerous family without indecent 
distraction from his study.* 

The payment of fines for impecunious crimi- 
nals and the use of his garden for the graves in 
the sadness of the earliest deaths hint at his 
kindheartedness. f 

The establishment of this colony, not alone for 
political independence, but to try the experiment 
of different ideas of church polity; his peculiar 
position with regard to the baptism of infants; 
his advanced notions of allowing others than 
church members to participate in the town gov- 
ernment, the relinquishment of which was made 
a condition of union with New Haven, mark him 
as a man of individual, perhaps liberal ideas, 

* Hubbard's Hist, of New England, p. 328. 
t Records. Appendix VH. 

4 



50 PETER PRUDDEN. 

quite likely one of the men a little "tainted with 
the new theology" of that day. 

He is spoken of as 'the amiable and useful 
Prudden.' Hubbard says : 'He was a man of 
great zeal, courage, wisdom and exemplary 
gravity in his conversation.' Another says : 
*His course had been dutiful and its termination 
blessed,' for we must remember that after only 
seventeen years of pastorate here he died at the 
relatively early age of fifty-six years. 

In the Memorial Hall at Hartford, among the 
numbers of early clerical fathers of this state are 
selected three for special honors, in a memorial 
window — Hooker, Davenport and Prudden — 
but of these Davenport had fifteen and Hooker 
five more years of life work than Prudden. 
Doubtless with a later autumn he might have 
shown even riper fruit. 

But the quality that not only his biographers, 
but what little of public record and correspond- 
ence remains give most prominence to in him, is 
that referred to in these words on the tablet, 
where Cotton Mather says : 'He was noted for a 
singular faculty to sweeten, compose and qualify 
exasperated spirits, and to stop and heal all con- 
tentions, whence it was that his town of Milford 
enjoyed peace with truth all his days, notwith- 



PETER PRUDDEN. 5 1 

standing-/ he mildly continues, as if the task had 
not been altogether an easy one, 'some disposition 
to variance that afterwards broke out among 
them/ Yes, he was preeminently a peace- 
maker — perhaps the divinest quality with which 
we can credit a man. 'Blessed are the peace- 
makers for they shall be called the children of 
God.' 

He was greatly missed and mourned by the 
people here and elsewhere. 'Mr. Prudden, of 
blessed memory,' is the entry on your church 
record. The church four years without a pastor, 
widowed as they termed it, is perhaps another 
way of indicating their sorrow. The churches 
in this colony, speaking there, as here in this 
epitaph, of his death being a loss not alone to 
this church but to the churches, 'are sensible of 
the afflicting hand of God in the death of Mr. 
Prudden;' and the refusal of the General Court 
to join with the Massachusetts people in a synod 
'because weakened by the death of Mr. Prudden/ 
are other references to his loss. 

And so this tablet to him, your first pastor, is 
left with you with the request, that it may be 
suitably preserved and cared for during the future 
of this building and its successors, so that the 
memory of him who took so prominent a part in 



52 PETER PRUDDEN. 

its earliest moments may be preserved in honor 
and esteem to his latest hours." 

PETER PRUDDEN. 

FOUNDER AND PASTOR 

of this church from its establishment in 
1639 till his death in 1656. 



"I am sure tis a blessed child of God 

whose name is before us; who besides his 

other excellent qualities was noted for 

a singular faculty to sweeten, compose 

and qualify exasperated spirits and stop 

or heal all contentions — whence it was 

that his town of Milford enjoyed peace 

with truth all his days. 

He continued an able and faithful servant of 

the churches until the fifty-sixth year of his 

age : when his death was felt by the colony as 

the fall of a pillar which made the whole 

fabrick to shake." 

Cotton Mather. 



The inscription given above is on a brass 
tablet which is set on a polished, dark Tennessee 
marble background. The inscription is in illu- 
minated colors, surrounded with ornamental cor- 
ners and lines engraved on the Brass Tablet. 
The marble is 3 ft. 5 in. high and 2 ft. 10 in. wide. 
The brass is 2 ft. 9 in. high and 2 ft. 2 in. wide. 

The tablet was the gift of Mrs. Susan Prudden 
Beardsley. 



PETER PRUDDEN. 53 

Descendants of Peter Prudden have continued 
to reside in Milford or vicinity until the present 
day, although few still bear the name. The 
Pruddens were among those who, in 1805, 
formed the church in North Milford or Orange, 
and continued to be for many years residents 
of that section. 

A fire in the Orange homestead in 1790 
destroyed nearly all of the important Prudden 
papers and relics. The personal relics of Peter 
Prudden known to exist, aside from the Milford 
records in his handwriting, are now in the posses- 
sion of Rev. T. P. Prudden of West Newton, 
Mass. These are a heavy gold signet ring, bear- 
ing the letters 'T. P." with a floral device, the 
impress of which is on the cover of this book; 
a silver-headed cane, handed down by tradition 
through the clergymen of the family, and the 
original letter written to Mr. Prudden by Mr. 
Ezekial Cheever, now loaned to the New Haven 
Colony Historical Society. 



54 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Joanna Prudden^ Widow of Peter Prudden. 

The larger proportion of Mrs. Prudden's life 
in America (twenty-five or thirty years) was yet 
before her, when she was left a widow, with eight 
children, the oldest sixteen and the youngest three 
years of age. She neither returned to England, 
nor sought relatives living two hundred and 
fifty miles away in Massachusetts, but remained 
among old friends at Milford, finding in her 
young family abundant cares, duties and com- 
panionship. As her husband had received no 
salary, and his estate was inventoried at £924. 
I OS. and 6d., aside from the property in York- 
shire, which was her own, her means of living 
were little affected by his death. So, when John 
wanted to go to college and become a minister 
the means were provided, and he was prepared, 
perhaps, at the new Colony school in New Haven. 
The scattered farms, which included nearly 160 
acres, and were increased by each later division 
of land, were made to yield their utmost. She 
displayed unusual capacity for business. She 
directed not only her household, and the farming, 
but kept posted about the horses and cattle and 
crops, learned how to make bargains, and to 
bring and defend lawsuits. 



JOANNA PRUDDEN. 55 

The Milford records show that the "Widow 
Prudden," as one of the proprietors, continued 
to receive allotments of land, whenever they 
were made. We find her bringing suit against 
the estate of one man for £4. 15s., due for "300 
of bread" furnished by her husband, which had 
never been paid. The Court decreed that it be 
paid her, provided her attorney, Mr. Robert 
Treat, gave security to have it repaid "if any 
just cause therefore arise thereafter." Before 
the New Haven Court of Magistrates, May 27, 
1 66 1, she is the defendant in a suit brought 
against her by John Davenport, Jr., for the 
recovery of a horse, which Mrs. Prudden had 
detained. The horse had a mark on his back 
"P. P." with "M" on his "near shoulder." 
We are glad that Mr. Thomas Betts supported 
the evidence of Sergeant Fowler that the mark 
Qould not be "J. D.," but it might possibly be 
"P. P.," by the horse starting forward when the 
brand was setting, or might turn it off one side." 
Nevertheless, she seems to have been beaten in 
this suit, but power to appeal was given her, 
though no record of further action is found. 
The Milford records also note that she applied 
to the town for satisfaction about land that 
should have come to her in a certain grant, but 



56 PETER PRUDDEN. 

for which there was not room in the assigned 
place, and she is allowed to have her division 
in some other place, which she may ''chuse." 
At another time, the town grants her eight acres 
more ''in full satisfaction for a highway through 
her land to the Indian side bridge" in response 
to a request from her son Samuel. 

Evidently she was a woman who looked out 
for her own and her children's rights, and meant 
to maintain them ; who appreciated property, and 
knew how to care for it and increase it; who 
ruled her home and had a mind of her own. 

For fifteen years after her husband's death she 
remained at Milford, while her children grew up. 
John settled at Jamaica, L. L, Samuel married 
and managed the farms. One by one the daugh- 
ters married and went to homes of their own, 
except the youngest, Mildred. In Mildred's 
eighteenth year she too was married and the date, 
Sept. 20, 1 67 1, is marked on the records by a 
double wedding, when Mrs. Prudden became Mrs. 
Willett. 

Capt. Thomas Willett had lived some years in 
Leyden and was a fluent speaker of the Dutch 
language, before he emigrated to Plymouth in 
1632, where he succeeded Miles Standish as cap- 
tain of the militia. He filled honorable positions 



JOANNA PRUDDEN. 57 

as a magistrate, and, as a trader with the Indians, 
was the trusted friend of Wamsutta (son of 
Massasoit). A personal friend of Governor 
Stuyvesant, he was appointed by one of the com- 
missioners to settle the disputed boundary be- 
tween New Amsterdam and Connecticut; he 
accompanied the Dutch Governor on his famous 
treaty-making trip to Albany in 1662, and when 
the British fleet sailed from Boston to capture 
New York sent a private messenger to warn 
Stuyvesant of the impending danger. Although 
living at Plymouth, he was a tax-payer and ship 
owner in New York. He was rich enough to 
have his bond for £3,000 accepted at one time 
and to loan the West India Co. 1,500 guldens at 
another.* His character and ability were held in 
such esteem in New York that he was appointed 
the first mayor after the English occupation, and 
again, after a year, during which he served as 
alderman, mayor for a second term. Such is 
the man, but recently become a widower, who 
secured the hand of the Widow Prudden. She 
may have met him thirty-four years earlier at 
Plymouth and we can hardly doubt that he had 
often been her guest during his frequent journeys 
from Massachusetts to New York. 

* Paper read by Thomas C. Cornell. New York Gene- 
alogical Society, June 13, 1890. 



58 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Capt. and Mrs. Willett first resided in New 
York, and then removed to Rehoboth and Swan- 
sea, Mass., where he died in 1674. The record 
of the letter which received her again into the 
fellowship of Milford church shows that Mrs. 
Willett returned shortly after Capt. Willett's 
death to Milford. 

Although past sixty years of age Mrs. Joanna 
Prudden Willett was again sought in marriage 
and became the wife of the Rev. John Bishop, 
for fifty years pastor in Stamford, Conn.* He 
was a few years her junior, a widower with 
several grown-up children, and with him she lived 
until her death. Neither the date of this mar- 
riage, nor of her death, nor of the place of her 
burial is known. In a letter from Rev. John 
Bishop to Increase Mather, written in 1681, he 
sends his "Greetings" and those of his wife, 
*Vho was Mrs. Willet, to good Mrs. Mather." 

The following is a copy of 

"Last Will of Joanna, wife of Rev. Peter Prudden." 



The last will and testament of Mrs. Joanna Bishop, some- 
time Prudden, late of Milford, now of Stamford in the 

* Rev. John Bishop walked all the way from Boston to 
Stamford with his Bible under his arm accompanying two 
men who had been sent to invite him to become pastor 
of the Stamford church. This Bible is still owned by his 
descendants. 



JOANNA PRUDDEN. 59 

colony of Connecticut, being of sound understanding and 
perfect memory, not knowing, how soon my great change 
may be, doo make this my last will in manner and form 
as followeth, all just debts being first payd by my 
Executors. 

Imprimis. 

I doo give to my eldest Son Samuell Prudden and his 
heyres all my right title and interest in my dwelling house, 
barns, yards, garden, orchard with ye remainder of my 
houselot, all but two acres of it that is to lye crosse the 
whole lott in the reare of it, which is two acres, I doo 
give and bequeath to my second son John Prudden and 
his heyrs forever. 

Item. 

I doo give and bequeath unto my two loving sons, vid. 
Samuell and John Prudden aforesaid the remainder of my 
parcell of upland lying in the barenocks, not yet disposed 
of to my eldest son, I pay the remainder thereof with my 
parcell of meadow there alsoe, to be equally divided 
between my two sons. 

Item. 

In like manner my will is, that the remainder of my 
upland and meadow lying in the point not formerly dis- 
posed of shall be equally divided between my two sons. 
Item. My will is, in like manner my sd. two sons shall 
equally divide my parcel of meadow lying in the fresh 
meadow and the remainder of my upland lott lying on ye 
indyan side shall in like manner be so divided between 
them. 

Item. 

My will is, that my son John Prudden shall have the 
whole other halfe of all my late halfe division of land 
already laid out & the one halfe of all that shal be layd 



6o PETER PRUDDEN. 

out hereafter, I having given my Son Samuell his halfe 
before in a deed bearing date 14th of February 1670 makes 
soe appeare. Item. My will is that my two Executors 
shall equally pay or cause to be payd to my five daughters 
and my late daughter Mary Walkers two children equall, 
as if she had been alive, five pounds apiece in all to be 
for thirty pounds, to be paid to them or their children sur- 
viving within one yeare after decease. Item. My will is 
my five daughters now living shall have all my wearing 
apparrell after decease to be equally divided between 
them or theirs. Item. My will is, all my plate and the 
rest of my moveable estate shall be these equally shared 
and divided amongst all my children, & my will is my 
daughter Mary Walkers' children shall have an equall 
share therein with the rest, meaning all yt. I shall dye 
possessed of in New England, and concerning the revenue 
that I shall dye possessed of in Yorkshire in housing and 
lands in old England comonly called by the name of 
Edgton Kerbye Moreside & Southfields now in my behalf 
one Mr. John Dickinson looks after it for me my share 
and proportion of which revenue and annuity is ten pounds 
by the yeare out of which ten pounds my will is, my two 
sons Samuell and John Prudden shall each of them have 
forty shillings apiece, and to my five daughters vid. 
Joanna, Mary's two children Elizabeth, Abigail, Sarah and 
Mildred, to each of them of theirs the sum of twenty 
shillings yearly, free from all charges of transportation, 
save only each one is to beare all the hazards of the season 
other losses by providences, as for other charges, looking 
after it and transportation of their sister's parts annually, 
my two sons shall beare yt out of their double shares which 
belong to them and their heyrs for ever. 

Item. 

My Will is, to nominate and appoint my two living sons 
vid. Samuell and John Prudden to bee my executors of 



JOANNA PRUDDEN. 6 1 

this my last will and testament which is to stand good 
after decease, and in testification that what is above 
written is my last will and testament, I have this eighth of 
November 1681 set to my hand and seale 

Joanna Bishop. My seale [seal]. 

Signed, Sealed and declared 
to be the Mrs. Joanna Bishop's 
last will and testament ye day 
and year above said. 

Robert Treat, Junior 

Witnesses. 
Samuel Buckingham. 

Further my will is that my silver tankard shall bee 
delivered to my deare husband Mr. John Bishop to him 
and to his heyres or assigns forever. 

Item. 

My Will is yt my Son Samuell Prudden shall have my 
best feather-bed as also my silver beaker yt was his 
fathers and my mind is yt if the feather-bed and beaker 
amount to more than his proportion of the moveables that 
he shall pay to some of the rest, farther my will is that 
my son John Prudden shall have my other feather-bed and 
part of his proportion of moveables, the bed is that I have 
removed with me where I am, 

Joanna Bishop. 

Testified to by Elder Buckingham. 



GENEALOGY. 



It may be said in explanation of the plan adopted for the 
arrangement of the genealogies that the small figures at 
the right and above each name indicate the generation 
counting from Peter Prudden as the first. The Roman 
numerals at the left of the names indicate the order of 
the children in each family. The bracketed figures also 
at the left indicate that the names following are to be 
again referred to with the same figure to mark them. The 
plus sign at the end of an entry indicates that the genealogy 
is to be continued. The genealogies of daughters have 
in no case been carried beyond the first or second genera- 
tion and have been inserted immediately after the name 
of the mother. 



GENEALOGY. 

Second Generation. 

The children of Peter Prudden^ and Joanna 
BoYSE^ — daughter of Rev. John Boyse and 
Joanna Boyse of Halifax,* England: 

I. Joanna^, born August, 1640, married 

Chittenden. 

II. Mary-, born Jan., 1641, married Zacheriah 
Walker as his first wife. Mr. Walker was a minis- 
ter, at Jamaica, L. I., then at Stratford and later 
the first pastor at Woodbury, Conn., where he went 
with a company of followers from Stratford. We 
find no mention in Cothren's History of Woodbury 
of Mr. Walker's wife Mary, but Orcutt's History of 
Stratford mentions her and their children Zachariah 
and Abigail, twins, born May, 1670, and Elizabeth, 
born March, 1674. Her mother mentions in her 
will her "late daughter Mary Walker's two chil- 
dren" and in an extract from an Almanac found in 
the Washington headquarters at Morristown there 
is a memorandum of John Prudden's payment to 
"Zechary Walker," of the proportion of revenue 
from England, due to his sister Mary. 

(i) III. Elizabeth^, born Feb., 1642, baptized 4th 
of March, 1643. Married, name unknown. 
^Appendix, Wills of John & Joane Boyse. 



64 PETER PRUDDEN. 

(2) IV. Samuel^ born Feb., 1643, <^ied 1685; lived 
in Milford. + 

V. JoHN^ born Nov., 1645 in Milford, died 
Dec. II, 1725, graduated at Harvard College in 
1668. Minister in Newark, New Jersey — founder 
of the New Jersey branch of the family. + 

VI. Abagail^^ baptized Dec, 1647, married 
Joseph Walker of Stratford, Nov. 14, 1667. Mar- 
ried, second, Richard Hubbell, in 1688. 

Her children were: 

1 Robert Walker', b. Aug. 15, 1668, bap. May 22, 1670. 

2 Sarah Walker^ bap. May 22, 1670, 

3 Abagail Walker^ Feb. 1671. 

1 Joseph Hubbell', d. 1700. 

2 John Hubbell', b. 1691. 

VII. Sarah^ born May 12, 1650, married 
Gideon Allen. 

VIII. Peter^ born May 26, 1652, died June 10, 
1652. 

IX. Mildred^, born March, 1653, married Lieut. 
Sylvanus Baldwin, 20th of Sept., 1671, died Jan. 
6, 1712. 

Children : 

1 Elizabeth Baldwin', b. March 29, 1673. 

2 Richard Baldwin', b. Dec. 1674. 

3 Sarah Baldwin', b. Aug. 15, 1677. 

4 Sylvanus Baldwin', b. Nov. 30, 1679. 



GENEALOGY—SECOND GENERATION. 65 

Lieutenant Baldwin's name occurs frequently in the town 
records in places of trust and responsibility. He was a 
surveyor, and was one of the agents to buy land from 
the Indians for Milford, which included part of the present 
town of Woodbridge. In 1720 he was one of the patentee 
proprietors of Waterbury, but continued to reside, and 
died, in Milford. 

See Baldwin family book, p. 87. 

(i) Samuel, oldest son of Peter, was but thirteen 
when his father died. He inherited the homestead 
and adjacent land besides receiving also from his 
mother, about the time of her marriage with Capt. 
Willett, a considerable portion of land. He married 
Grace, daughter of Lieut. Jos. Judson of Stratford, 
whose wife was Sarah, daughter of John Porter 
of Wethersfield. 

"John Porter was born A.D. 1598 in Kenil worth, War- 
wickshire, Eng. at Wraxhall Abbey, the ancient seat of 
the family. He was descended in the twelfth generation 
from a Norman Knight in the train of Duke William, 
who bore the name of William de la Porte, as may be 
seen upon the rolls of Battle Abbey. The name soon 
became transformed into Porter. John Porter and his 
wife Rose sailed from London in the ship "Anne,"- arriving 
at Dorchester, Mass., May 30, 1627, where they remained 
until the summer of 1635, when they were of the com- 
panies who settled at Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield." 

Samuel Prudden shared with his mother in such 
allotments of land as were made after his father's 
death, as is shown by Milford records, p. 157. 
5 



66 PETER PRUDDEN. 

^'Samuel Prudden hath for his half share," 1677, 
ten acres. "Samuel Prudden and Mrs. Willett have 
their last division in one lot together in all 20 acres." 
He died at 42, but his widow Grace survived 
him many years, and the records show her as trans- 
acting business with her brother-in-law John Prud- 
den of Newark. In 1669 she purchased land of 
him "for a valuable consideration in hand received." 
May, 1686, she received from John "two parcels 
of land."— 

In this line has descended the branch of the 
family interested in compiling this family history. 
It is the only line in which our genealogical lists 
are complete. For seven successive generations the 
name Samuel has been preserved in it, and until 
recently some of Samuel Prudden's descendants 
have been owners of land in Milford or North 
Milford, now Orange. The only land still held 
(in the family) is the summer home of Mrs. Susan 
Prudden Beardsley in Orange. + 

John Prudden^, the second son of Peter, gradu- 
ated from Harvard College in 1668. Drake's His- 
tory of Roxbury, Mass., reports an engagement with 
Mr. Prudden to teach in the Grammar School there, 
in the same year, probably immediately after gradu- 
ating. In this engagement, he promises, "to use 
his best skill and endeavor, both by precept and 
example, to instruct in all scholasticall, morall and 
theologicall discipline the children (soe far as they 



GENEALOGY—SECOND GENERATION. 6/ 

are or shall be capable) of those persons whose 
names are hereinunder written, all A. B. C. Darians 
excepted." The names of 58 persons were signed 
to this agreement. For this large and beneficent 
labor the ''prudential consideration" was £25 per 
annum, "three quarters in Indian corn or pease and 
one quarter in barley of good merchantable quality 
and at the current rate^ to be delivered at the upper 
mills in Roxbury." 

Probably the marriage of his sister Mary to Mr. 
Walker, who was at one time minister at Jamaica, 
L. L, led to his settlement there as pastor of the 
church in 1671. The early history of this church 
gives considerable detail of the business relations 
between pastor and people.* He was called by a 
town meeting which ordered at the same time, that 
"A convenient new pew be made for the minister to 
preach in," and that "he receive forty pounds a yeare 
in Corent county paye of the townd." The town 
allowed him to build a house on the minister's 
lot, and agreed to reimburse him for his expense, 
if he left through their failijre to pay the forty 
pounds a year. After four years he left and 
preached for a time in Rye and Bedford, N. Y. (In 
some records his. -name is erroneously given as 
"Peter.") A year later he returned to Jamaica, and 
the church permitted him to use the house and lot, 

* History of the Presbyterian Church at Jamaica, L. I 
Published in 1862. 



68 PETER PRUDDEN. 

provided he agreed, "to continue in this towne, dis- 
charging the work of a minister in this towne for 
the terme of ten yeer, according to the rules of the 
gospel in this town." For this he received his fire- 
wood in addition to the forty pounds, nineteen men 
agreeing to bring him a load "a pese yerely." He 
served the church for more than the stipulated time, 
but there is reason to think they failed in doing 
their part. In a petition, in 1688, in which he styles 
himself "quondam minister of Jamaica," he states 
that a considerable portion of his salary has been 
withheld, and ends by asking liberty to form a 
separate assembly of the Congregational persuasion, 
thus giving a possible reason for the failure of the 
church to fulfill its part of the contract since the 
"waye of the churches" in New England, where he 
had been reared, was not the same as the "waye" of 
the Presbyterians on Long Island. The fact that 
he resumed his charge indicates that instead of 
making his people Congregationalists, he became a 
Presbyterian. He accepted, in 1692, a pressing 
invitation to become the pastor of the church in 
Newark, New Jersey, as successor to Abraham 
Pierson, whose son, Abraham Pierson, Jr., the first 
President of Yale College, had been his classmate 
at Harvard College. 

Since Milford families were among the first 
settlers of Newark, it is legitimate to suppose, that 
they were pleased to secure as pastor, the son of 



GENEALOGY— SECOND GENERATION. 69 

the beloved first minister of Milford. The settle- 
ment of Newark had been an effort to carry out the 
same ideas of a theocratic state that had been tried 
for twenty-eight years in New Haven Colony, but 
was now practically abandoned. Some of those 
who had been disappointed at New Haven had the 
courage to believe that they could, as Dr. L. W. 
Bacon says, ^'Lifting the Ark of the Covenant by 
the staves, set themselves down by the Passaic, 
calling their plantation the 'New Ark,' " and thus 
carry out their principle of restricting the franchise 
to the members of the church. 

Mr. John Prudden remained pastor of this church 
for seven years, at a salary of £50 a year and his 
firewood; he is spoken of by one of his successors 
as sustaining a "worthy character as a man of sense 
and religion, though he does not seem to have been 
a popular preacher."* He continued to reside in 
Newark, after his resignation as pastor, enjoying 
the confidence and esteem of the people, until his 
death at the age of eighty. His relationship with 
the church was so harmonious that whenever a 
vacancy occurred in the pulpit, he was appointed 
one of the committee to procure another minister, 
and was uniformly employed to supply the pulpit 
during the interval. His estate was sufficient to 
enable him to live on his own means, but he occupied 
his later years by taking boys into his family for 

* "History of First Church in Newark." Stearns, pp. 
97-104. 



70 PETER PRUDDEN. 

instruction. An old Almanac belonging to John 
Prudden, published in London in 1680, is to be 
found at Washington's Headquarters in Morris- 
town, N. J. This Almanac has alternating blank 
pages, which were used by him as a sort of memo- 
randum book. In it are records of money or goods 
receiAT-ed for "schooling" or "board and schooling" 
from 1705 on, and among household items we find 
"linen warp and woolen heft to be woven into 
curtains," 31 yards of woolen cloth, 288 lbs. of beef 
worth £2, 8s." Here too, we find the memorandum 
of the division of the annual revenue from the 
English estate after his mother's death, which gives 
a valuable record of the married names of his six 
sisters. 

Extract from an Almanac belonging to the Rev. John 
Prudden, and now in Washington Headquarters, at Mor- 
ristown, New Jersey. 

"Anno Dom. 1692, June 24. 

This — by John and Grace Prudden executoris of their 
mother's will to each of their sisters Joanna, Mary, Abigail, 
Elizabeth, Sarah, Mildred, of their annual revenue from 
England for the four years next preceding 91, viz. 90-89, 
88, 87, as followeth. 

To Joanna Chittenden 3. lo-o being the full of each 

one's proportion by mutual agreement of their own until '91. 

To Zachery Walker, . . . 3-10-0 

To Pastor Beve (name uncertain), 3-10-0 

" Abigaul Hubbell, . . . 2-10-6 

rest due her, .... 19-6 

To Sarah Allen, .... 4-5-6 

being 15 s. more of hers to be deducted out of her part 
next voyage. 

To Mildred, 3-10- 



GENEALOGY— SECOND GENERATION. 7 1 

which may appear by particulars in a paper at sister 
Prudden's." 

In 1748 his body was removed from the old 

burying ground to the rear of the First Church 

of Newark, with the following epitaph: 

"Here lyes ye Body of ye rev'd Mr John Prudden, minis- 
ter of ye Gospel, who departed this life Dec. nth, 1725, 
aged 80 years." "^ 

"Nor grace nor favour fill my reins 
Soe room for yt there still remains." 

John Prudden's descendants are numerous in 
New Jersey, but it has not been within the scope 
of this work to attempt to secure genealogical 
records beyond the following taken from the Bi- 
centennial Celebration of the Settlement of Newark, 
published by the New Jersey Historical Society in 
1866. 

Children of John- Prudden (son of Peter^) were: 

I John Prudden^ born in Milford in 1675, whose 
children were : 
i. Abagail Prudden*, m. Samuel Ailing, 
ii. Joanna Prudden*. 

Children of Abagail* and Samuel Ailing 
' were : John®, Joseph^ and Prudden^ 

tA^l <2 Joseph Prudden"*, a deacon, who died in Morris Co., 
\^t''' "' Sept., 1776, aged 84. Children: Joseph*, Isaac*, 

Peter*, Moses*, Adoniram*, Benjamin*, Keziah*, 
Rachel*, and Sarah Miller*. 

3 Joanna Prudden\ m. Nathaniel Moore. 

4 Kezia Prudden^ m. Elnathan Baldwin. 

5 Sarah Prudden^ m. James Nutman. 



\ 



72 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Third Generation. 

<i) Children of Samuel Prudden^ (son of Peter^ ) 
and Grace Judson were : 

I. Peter^ born July 28, 1671, died May 19, 
1705. He is said to have studied for the ministry 
and to have been drowned. 

II. Samuel^, born Aug. 10, 1673 (no date of 
death given, probably an infant). 

III. Joanna^ born March i, 1676, married 
James Fenn of Milford. 

<3) IV. Samuel", born June, 1677, lived in Mil- 
ford, died Oct. 17, 1742, married Hannah Clark, 
daughter of Thomas Clark whose mother was a 
Gilbert. She is believed to have been Hannah, 
daughter of Matthew Gilbert, the Deputy-Governor 
of New Haven Colony. The will of this Samuel 
Prudden, found in the Appendix XVI, gives a fair 
idea of the condition of the family as regards prop- 
erty, one hundred years after the settlement of 
Miiford.+ 

(4) V. John", born March 20, 1680, died 1762, mar- 
ried Mary Clark in 1707.*+ 

VI. Mary, born Aug. 11, 1681. 

* Mr. Pond of Milford thought that the two brothers, 
Samuel and John, of this generation married first cousins, 
Clarks. 



GENEALOGY— FOURTH GENERATION 73 

Fourth Generation. 

(3) The children of Samuel Prudden^ (son of 
SamueP, Peter^) and Hannah Clark were: 

I. Samuel*, born 1708, died Aug. 14, 1774, aged 
6y\ married Sarah Beard Feb. 25, 1741. Milford 
records show a Sarah Beard, daughter of Joseph, 
born 1 70 1. (See inventory of his property. Appen- 
dix XVIII.) 

II. Peter^ never married, died 1777. 

III. David*, never married, died 1775. There 
is a tradition that these two brothers, who hved 
together, went to see the same ladies every Sunday 
night for forty years. 

IV. Hannah*, married Samuel Platt. 

V. Sarah*, married Gideon Camp. 

VI. Grace*, born Oct. i8th, 1722, died Nov. 
18th, 1742; was killed by falling from a horse. 

(4) Children of John Prudden^ (son of Samuel-, 
Peter^ ) and Mary Clark were : 

(6) I. John*, born 1708, died 1786; married 
Hannah Newton, the granddaughter of Roger 
Newton, the successor of Rev. Peter Prudden, as 
minister in Milford. + 

II. Joseph*, born June 21, 1712. 

(7) III. Job*, born 1714, married Esther Sherman 
of New Haven. His history was as closely identi- 



74 PETER PRUDDEN. 

fied with the Second church in Milford as Peter 
Prudden's was with the First, which for a hundred 
years remained the only church in the town. In 
1737, a dissatisfied minority formed a new church 
under the leadership of Ephraim Strong, Job's 
brother-in-law. So violent was the opposition, 
that Job Prudden, who had graduated from Yale 
College in 1734 and was invited to become their 
first pastor, was obliged to go to New Jersey for 
ordination. He was installed, however, in 1747 
and served the church with great devotion and 
ability all his life, which was ended June 24th, 
1774, when he was 59 years of age, by small 
pox contracted in visiting one of his parish- 
ioners. A year before he died, he gave iioo 
towards a fund for the support of the society of the 
Second Church, and he bequeathed to them all his 
personal property and real estate which lay in the 
center of the town, and is now very valuable. His 
wife died in Bethlehem, Conn., at the home of his 
sister, the wife of Rev. Dr. Bellamy, where her later 
years were spent. 

Mr. Scranton describes him as preaching with- 
out notes, and says, "He preached the gospel with 
great plainness of speech, and with primitive sim- 
plicity. Less concerned to please than to instruct, 
and edify, he studiously accommodated his dis- 
courses to the meanest capacity. To this end, he 
frequently borrowed similitudes from familiar, some- 



GENEALOGY— FIFTH GENERATION. 75 

times from vulgar objects, but his application of 
them was so pertinent and his utterance was so 
solemn as to suppress levity and silence criticism."* 

IV. Enoch*, baptized in 1719; unmarried. 

V. JoHNATHAN*, baptized in 1722; no children. 

VI. Mary*, baptized 1728, married Ephraim 
Strong of Milford. (See the genealogy of the 
Strong family.) 

VI. Sybilia*, baptized 1732, died 1740. 

Fifth Generation. 

(5) Children of Samuel Prudden* (SamueP, 
SamueP, Peter^ ) and Sarah Beard were : 

(8) I. Samuel^, born 1743, died 1819, married 
Anna Clark, who died May iSth, 1794, aged 35. 
Married, second, Sarah Hine March 2nd, 1800. + 

II. Joseph^ born 1745, died 1776, lived unmar- 
ried in Milford leaving his property to his brother 
Samuel. 

III. Sarah^ born 1746, married Enoch Clark 
of North Milford. No children. 

(8) Samuel, the oldest son was to have remained in 
Milford, but when he inherited the Orange or North 
Milford property, where the first Prudden house 
had been built for his brother Joseph, he removed 
there. This place was three miles north of Milford 

* Scranton, page 128. 



7^ PETER PRUDDEN. 

Center on the turnpike to Derby, just before the 
road crosses the brook. The letters and papers in 
reference to the EngHsh property, printed in the 
Appendix, were written and received by this Samuel. 
These papers show that this descendent of the Puri- 
tans and sire of abolitionists held at least one slave 
in 1776.* 

As part of his children were born in Milford, 
he probably removed there temporarily after a fire 
which destroyed the Orange Homestead. f The 
house which he then built is still standing, converted 
into a barn in the rear of Mr. Albertus N. Clark's 
house. + 

(6) Children of John Prudden* (son of John^, 
vSamuel^, Peter^) and Hannah Newton were: 

(9) I. Fletcher^, born Aug. 30th, 1737; lived in 
Milford, until moved to Bethlehem, Conn., late in 
life. He died Jan. 8th, 1798. Married June 9th, 
1760, Sarah, daughter of Edmund Treat (grand- 
daughter of Governor Treat of Milford.) He 

* Appendix XVII. 

t This fire was caused by the ill-temper of a servant. 
Mrs. Prudden was sick and sent the girl to borrow some 
metheglin, a drink made of honey and yeast, which had 
been a favorite colonial beverage. When the girl returned 
the mistress thought she must have drunk some of it, as 
there was so little left. In revenge for rebuke on the 
subject, the girl set fire to the house over the head of her 
sick mistress. 



GENEALOGY— FIFTH GENERATION. 77 

served as captain of a company of Volunteers dur- 
ing the Revolutionary War, guarding the coast of 
Long Island Sound, and was later promoted to the 
office of Colonel. During the war his wife con- 
ducted the hotel of which he was the landlord, and 
in times of danger the children were sent away for 
safety. He had five children, 
(lo) II. Nehemiah^ born 1749, married, first, Agnes 
Pease, second, Sibyl Potter, widow of a former pas- 
tor of Enfield Church ; graduated from Yale College 
in 1775. Nehemiah Prudden sustained the minis- 
terial traditions of the family with ability and 
fidelity, and when he died in 181 5, after a pastorate 
of thirty-three years, the church bell was tolled all 
day in token of the universal mourning. We 
learn from Connecticut ecclesiastical history that 
the church, which was in a divided state when he 
took it, was built up by his wise and judicious 
ministry and the exercise of the peacemaking quali- 
ties that he may have inherited from his great-great- 
grandfather. 

Mr. Scranton says, "He labored abundantly in the 
work of his Divine Master, was a judicious evangeli- 
cal and faithful preacher and highly esteemed both 
by his own people and all his acquaintance. In 
difficult cases among brethren and in the churches, 
he was deemed a good counsellor. So great was 
the ascendancy that he gained over his people by 
his discretion and moderation, by his condescensions 



78 PETER PRUDDEN. 

and benevolence, by his faithful piety while he lived, 
that they regarded his counsels as oracular, and since 
his death they mention his name with profound 
regard and veneration." He had three children. + 
His monument stands in the cemetery at Enfield 
with a eulogistic epitaph covering three sides. 
(ii) in. JoHN^^ born in Milford in 1740, removed 
to Bethlehem, where he died March 16, 18 12, mar- 
ried, first, Eunice Newton of Woodbridge, second, 
Mary, daughter of Ephraim Strong, his cousin. 
Had three children. + 

(12) IV. Newton^^ born in Milford in 1754, lived in 
Milford till i8i6_, when he removed to Bethlehem; 
died in Burlington, Conn., April 18, 1836. Married 
Elizabeth, daughter of Moses Northrop of Milford. 
Had two children. + 

Sixth Generation. 

(8) Children of Samuel Prudden^ (son of 
Samuel*, Samuel^, SamueP, Peter^) and Ann 
Clark were: 

I. Sarah^ born Jan. 5, 1782. 
II. Anne®, born Aug. 17, 1783. 

Both of these children died suddenly on the same day, 
Jan. 26, 1788, of "black canker." 

(13) III. SAMUEL^ born in Milford in 1785; lived 
in Oranofe on the homestead inherited from his 



GENEAL OGY— SIXTH GENERA TION. 79 

father; married Susan, daughter of Capt. Gould 
Smith of West Haven (born 1792, died 1861) ; died 
June 26, 1832. He was a member and steadfast 
supporter of the Church in Orange. His letters 
show him to have been a man of thoughtful mind 
and deep religious feeling. He had eight children.+ 

(14) IV. Joseph^ born August 5, 1787; died Jan. 
14, 1840 ; married, first, Naomi, daughter of Samuel 
Stone, who died in 18 13, aged 21. Her only child 
(Joseph) died two months later, a little more than 
a year old; married, second, Anna, daughter of 
Josiah Hunger of Madison, born Nov. 4th, 1792, 
died Dec. 27th, 1819; married, third, Charlotte, 
daughter of Deacon Isaac Hemingway of Wood- 
bridge, born Nov. 29, 1796, died April 19, 1869. 
He was an esteemed deacon of the church from the 
age of 2y until his death, and liberal in the aid of 
every Christian work, and, with his brothers, zealous 
in inaugurating the great missionary enterprises of 
the nineteenth century, in which he showed his inter- 
est by naming one of his sons "William Carey." 
His farm lay on the other side of the "Wepawoge" 
from his brother's and about a mile northwest. He 
had seven children. + 

(15) V. Peter^ born March 8, 1790, died March 25, 
1875, married Oct. 20, 1834, Charity Davis, daugh- 
ter of Col. John Davis of Oxford, Conn. His farm 
was a mile north of his brother Samuel's on the 
main road until, in May, 1835, he removed to Lock- 



8o PETER PRUDDEN. 

port, N. Y., which was then ''Out West." He was 
a week making the journey west of Albany by tlie 
"rapid transit" of the Erie Canal. The remainder 
of his life was spent in Lockport. He had eight 
children. + 

VI. Sally^ born Jan. 4, 1792, died March 30, 
1865, married Anson Davis of Oxford, Conn, (son 
of Col. John Davis of Oxford) Sept. 5, 181 1 ; had 
ten children. 

1 Sheldon Davis^ b. Jan. i, 1813; m. Marriette 

Church of Seymour in 1840; d. April 7, 1891. 
He was a clergyman of the P. E. Church, 

2 Sarah Ann Davis^ b. March 10, 1815 ; m. Luman 

Chapman, 1850; d. Nov., 1881. 

3 Anson Riley Davi?^ b. 1818; m. Mary N. Ailing of 

Orange in 1845; d. May 5, 1885; had seven 
children. 

4 Marcus Davis^, b. Oct. 9, 1820 ; m. Sarah M. Green 

of Seymour, March, 1850. Had eight children. 

5 Delia Maria Davis\ b. Oct., 1822; m. John F. Cox- 

head of Poughkeepsie 1844; d. April 2, 1878; 
had eleven children. 

6 Harpin Davis'', b. Feb. 24, 1825 ; m. Mary Chatfield 

of Oxford, 1850. Had five children, 

7 Homer Davis^ b. Oct. 15, 1827; d. March 9, 1899. 

Unmarried. 

8 Samuel Prudden Davis^ b. Sept. 11, 183 1 ; d. Dec. 

14, 1891. Unmarried, 

9 Martha Ellen Davis^ b. July 11, 1834; m. James 

E, Prudden^ (son of Samuel Prudden®), Dec, 
1880. No children. 

10 Victoria Sophia Davis^ b. Sept, 21, 1837; m, John 

F. Coxhead of Poughkeepsie, 1879; d. Aug. 7, 
1896. No children. 



GENE A L OGY— SIXTH GENERA TION. 8 1 

(9) Children of Colonel Fletcher Prudden-^ 
(son of John^, John^, SamueP, Peter^) and 
Sarah Treat were: 

I. Sarah Treat^ born April 20th, 1769, mar- 
ried Moses Parmelee of Bethlehem, died in Fair- 
fax, Vt. 
(16) II. Fletcher Newton®, born August 25, 1772, 
married Anne Parsons ; lived first' in Bethlehem, 
Conn., then in Enfield, then at Colebrook, N. H., 
and later emigrated to Michigan with his family, 
making the journey in three months with a four- 
horse wagon. He lived on a farm six miles east 
of Ann Arbor. He died in 1843 + 

III. Nancy®, born Nov., 1775, married Eleazer 
Crane of Bethlehem, Conn., in 1798; lived in 
Woodbury, Conn., then in Colebrook, N. H. In 
1807 he returned to Bethlehem and later went back 
to New Hampshire, but finally located in Beloit, 
Wis., where a son (Robert Prudden Crane, who 
married Almira P. Bicknell of Vermont in 1835) 
had previously made a home. In 1849 she returned 
to Connecticut and remained with her children until 
her death. 

IV. Hannah®, born Sept., 1777, married Peter 
Field, of Enfield, Conn. She also went to Cole- 
brook, N. H., and in 1837 to Beloit, Wis. Mrs. 
Field died in Beloit, Oct., 1854, aged yy. 

V. Elizabeth®, born 1779, married Johnathan 
Hubbell of Bethlehem, who afterwards moved to 



82 PETER PRUDDEN. 

the vicinity of Rochester, N. Y., and later to Wayne 
Co., Mich.^ where she died in 1806. 

(10) Children of Rev. Nehemiah Prudden^ (son 
of John^, John^, SamueP, Peter^) and Agnes 
Pease were: 

I. Ephraim Pease^j graduated at Yale College 
in 181 1, married Laura Porter; was a successful 
merchant, lived in Enfield, Conn, until his death, 
aged 50. He was Probate Judge in the Enfield 
district and Representative to the General Assembly 
for several years. 

He had two sons, whose names we do not know, 
one of whom died at 15, and the other survived his 
father, and was unmarried. 

His daughters were, Hannah'^ and Elizabeth^. 
Hannah never married, and after the death of her 
father, lived with her cousin, Mrs. Carpenter, 
in Minnesota. Elizabeth married Rev. G. S. F. 
Savage, D.D., a prominent and honored Congrega- 
tional minister, of Illinois, for many years con- 
nected with the Theological Seminary in Chicago. 
She died in 1885. 

n. Agnes^, married Roswell Parsons, partner 
of Fletcher N. Prudden, her cousin, who, also after 
the failure of their business in Enfield, went to 
Michigan, where they were identified with the early 
settlement of the town of Pittsfield and of Ann 
Arbor. 



GENEALOGY— SIXTH GENERATION. 83 

Their children were : Nehemiah Prudden^ Philo^ 
a wealthy citizen of Detroit, Harriet^ and Angeline^, 
and another son^ whose name is not given. The 
sons both located in Michigan, Wisconsin or Mis- 
souri. Harriet^ married Dea. Mills of Ann Arbor; 
had a son, Addison^, who lived in Missouri near his 
uncle, N. P. Parsons, and a daughter^, who mar- 
ried the Rev. Mr. Parker of Manhattan, Kansas. 
Angeline'' married Justus Carpenter, and was living 
at Sauk Rapids, Minn., in 1880. 

III. Hannah^ Have no knowledge of Han- 
nah Prudden, the youngest daughter of the Rev. 
Nehemiah. 

(11) Children of John Prudden^ (son of John*, 
John^, SamueP, Peter^). 

I. JoHN^, who died young. 

n. Mary Strong^ who married Dr. Hunt- 
ington, died in Cairo, N. Y. ; had no children. 

ni. EuNiCE^^ or (Emma?), unmarried; lived 
in Beloit, Wis. 

(12) Children of Newton Prudden^ (son of John*, 
John^, Samuel^, Peter^) and Elizabeth North- 
rop of Milford, w^ere : 

I. Mary E.^ born Feb. 3rd, 1875, married in 
1806 to Rev. Erastus Scranton, pastor of the Con- 
gregational Church in North Milford, now Orange, 
Conn., and also at Burlington, Conn. ; resigned his 
pastorate to work for home missions in Connecticut. 



^4 PETER PRUDDEN. 

They had no children, but adopted the daughter 
of her brother Joseph, Mary E. Prudden^, who 
married G. S. Brown, and had three children. 

One daughter married P. A. Scranton of Augusta, 
Ga. One son, Jewett Scranton^, married Alice 
Scranton of Madison, Conn. And Mary S. Brown^ 
married Wm. E. Hale of Chicago. 

11. Joseph^ born in Milford, May 20, 1789, 
married Nancy Strong; lived in Litchfield South 
Farms, called Morris ; removed to Sandersville, 
Ga.+ 

vSeventh Generation. 

(13) Children of Samuel Prudden^ (son of 
SamueP, Samuel^, SamueP, SamueP, Peter^) 
and Susan Smith were: 

I. Samuel Smith^, born Sept. 25, 1815, died 
Nov., 1880; studied medicine at Pittsfield, Mass., 
New York and Washington, D. C, and practiced 
in the South until the opening of the Civil War; 
was unmarried. 

II. Sidney Clark^, born June 14, 1817, mar- 
ried Isabella Simonton (who died May 26, 1893), 
died June 30, 1893. He lived in Eatonton, Ga., 
where he held the office of postmaster for fifty 
years, and so kept the confidence of all parties 
during the troublous times of the Civil War that he 
was made a member of the Georgia Legislature in 
the Reconstruction period just after the war. + 



GENEALOGY— SEVENTH GENERATION. 85 

III. SuSAN^ born Aug. 25, 1819, married, first, 
David Smith, Aug. 10, 1854 (who died Aug. 20, 
1867) ; had one son, David Prudden Smith®, bom 
Sept. 13, 1855, died Feb. 13, 1871 ; married, second, 
Oct. 6, 1874, Dr. L. N. Beardsley, of Milford, 
Conn., who died Nov. 22, 1880. Mrs. Susan 
Prudden Beardsley is the donor of the tablet to 
Peter Prudden in the Milford Church, and the 
owner of the papers relating to the English prop- 
erty published in the Appendix. 

IV. Charles Elliot^ born Sept. 14, 182 1, died 
Feb. 23, 1876. He lived also in Georgia, and was 
in business with his brother Nathan up to the time 
of the war. 

(19) V. Nathan Sherman^, born July i, 1824, mar- 
ried Amelia, daughter of Daniel Keith, of Utica, 
N. Y. He went South in 1843. The prosperous 
business in which he had been engaged with his 
brother Charles was completely wrecked by the war. 
He came North at its close to regain his health, 
and died in West Haven, Aug. 25, 1865. + 

VI. Sarah Elizabeth^, born June 28, 1826, 
died June 27, 1881 ; married Amos H. Ailing of 
Derby, Sept. 2, 1847; had three children: 

1 Louise Maria Ailing', b. May 25, 1849 1 m. Dec. 24, 

1874 to Dr. George L. Beardsley; has two 
children : 
i. Ailing Prudden Beardsley', b. Jan. 29, 1877. 
ii. Elizabeth Coley Beardsley', b. Nov. i, 1885. 

2 Mary Ailing', b. Aug. 23, 1857 ; d. March 26, 1862. 

3 Carolyn Elizabeth Ailing', b. March 24, 1863. 



86 PETER PRUDDEN. 

VII. Julia Maria^, born Oct. 19, 1828, died 
August 12, 1889; married May 10, 1853, to Charles 
B. Ailing of Derby, Conn. ; had two children : 

1 Charles H. Alling^ b. Dec. 27, 1855 ; d. March 21, 

1890 ; m. Feb. 22, 1886 to Josephine S. Hill ; 
had two sons : 

i. Kenneth Slade Ailing", b. May 23, 1887. 
ii. Charles Booth Alling^ b. Aug. 4, 1888. 

2 Susan Ailing^ b. Nov. 13, 1861 ; m. Sept. 14, 1887 

to Dr. Charles T, Baldwin; has four chil- 
dren; 

• i. Harold Ailing Baldwin', b. in Rome, Italy, Jan. 

31, 1890- 
ii. Julia Prudden Baldwin^, b. Sept. 2, 1891. 
iii. Helen Baldwin', b. May 17, 1893. 
^ iv. Charles Booth Baldwin^ b. May 23, 1897. 

VIII. James Edwin^ born July 6, 183 1; mar- 
ried Dec. 22, 1880 to Martha Ellen Davis^ whose 
mother was Sally Prudden^, wife of Anson Davis; 
lived many years in Minnesota and South Dakota; 
studied medicine in Chicago, where he took his 
degree at the Hahnemann Medical College in 1893. 
Died Sept. 19, 1898. 

(14) Children of Joseph Prudden^ (son of SamueP, 
Samuel*, SamueP, Samuel-, Peter^). 

I. Joseph^, child of Naomi Stone, born Jan. 31, 
1812; died March 19, 1813. 



GENEALOGY—SEVENTH GENERATION, 8/ 

II. Joseph Stone^,* born July 3, 1815; died 
February 18, 1839. 

III. William Carey^* born June 7, 1818, died 
June, 1893; married Margaret Booth; had two 
children. 

(Children of Joseph Prudden and Charlotte Hem- 
ingway were:) 

IV. Jane Almira^, born in 1822; died March 
17, 1856; married Sept. 5, 1850, Rev. Erastus Col- 
ton ; had two children. 

1 Edward Prudden Colton^ b. June 12, 1853. 

2 Jane Jeanette Colton®, b. Feb. 12, 1856 ; d. Sept. 29, 

1880. 

V. Mary Caroline^, born Oct. 28, 1825; died 
April 14, 1840. 

VI. Edwins born Oct. 7, 1828; died Dec. 26, 
1828. 

VII. Charlotte^,, born May 10, 1830; died 
Aug. 13, 1843. 

VIII. Emily^, born June 13, 1832; unmarried 
After years of devoted service to the motherless 
children of her sister Jane, she went into the moun- 
tain regions of North Carolina in 1882, where the 
mental and moral needs of both the colored people 
and poor whites led her to consecrate her time and 
all her means to the establishment of schools, which 

*Children of Anna Munger. 



88 PETER PRUDDEN. 

as they were well inaugurated were transferred to 
the care of others. Thus Jones Institute was passed 
over to Judge Jones after three years ; Skyland Insti- 
tute, at Blowing Rock ; Lincoln Academy, at Kings 
Mountain, and Saluda Seminary were given over to 
the American Missionary Association. Since then, 
two schools at Elk Park and one at Hudson have 
been started at still greater personal sacrifice, and 
her latest enterprise is a farm "settlement" and 
makes the eighth effort in the line of such patriotic 
Christian work started by her in eighteen years. 

IX. Cornelia Ann'^, born May 22, 1836; mar- 
ried Rev. Enoch Edward Rogers May 6, 1862, lives 
in Lamberton, Minn. ; has had six children. 

1 xA.rthur Joseph Rogers^ b. April 16, 1866. 

2 Wilbur Rogers^ ) b. May 11, 1868; d. in the 

3 Winthrop Rogers^ f same year. 

4 Walter Prudden Rogers^ b. Sept. 20, 1870. 

5 Mary Elsie Rogers^ b. Dec. 10, 1872. 

6 Ernest Rogers^ b. Dec. 14, 1877, d. in two weeks. 

Arthur Joseph Rogers* married Clara Morse, has 
one child, Mildred Prudden Rogers", b. April 
14, 1899. Arthur Prudden Rogers* d. Oct., 1900. 

(15) Children of Peter Prudden^ (son of SamueP, 
Samuel'*, SamneP, Samuel-, Peter^) and Charity 
Davis were: 

(21) I. George Peter^, born Feb. 13, 181 6; married 
Eliza Ann Johnson of Southbury, Conn., Nov. 4, 
1839. Had five children. + 



GENEALOGY— SEVENTH GENERATION. 89 

George Peter Prudden' graduated from Yale 
College in 1835, when he was nineteen. He spent 
one year at Oberlin and two at the Yale Theologi- 
cal Seminary, where he took his degree in 1839. 

He was a Congregational clergyman, but his first 
pastorate was with the Presbyterian Church in 
Medina, N. Y., where he was ordained at the age 
of twenty-three. His ministry there is described as 
"one of the most blessed in the whole history of 
this church."* The same historical sketch speaks 
of him as "a hard worker and a man of fine pulpit 
abilities." He was pastor in Middlebury, South- 
bury and Watertown, Conn., remaining about five 
years in each place, being always an acceptable 
preacher and an esteemed pastor. He was an out- 
spoken advocate of anti-slavery principles at a time 
when it was unpopular if not dangerous, and his 
house was a station on one of the branches of the 
"underground railroad." 

Ill health compelled him to relinquish active ser- 
vice during his later years, when his home was in 
New Haven, but he supplied the pulpit in various 
places as he was able. He died Aug. 20, 1872, at 
the age of fifty-six. 

11. Nancy'^_, born March 12, 1818, married Seth 
Chapin Hart of Lockport, N. Y., June 28, 1839. 
Had five children. 

* See Historical sermon concerning the First Presby- 
terian Church, Medina, N. Y., preached July 2, 1876. 



go PETER PRUDDEN. 

1 George Prudden Harf, b. April 15, 1840; m. first, 

Helen Powers, June 18, 1874, who died June 24, 
1881 ; m. second, Emma Brainard Bulkley in 
May, 1884. Had two children : Percival 
Churchill Hart^ b. March 4, 1885, Brighton, Eng- 
land, and Edith Brainard Hart^ Jan. i, 1887. 
George Prudden Hart, died April 30, 1897. 

2 Seth Chapin Hart, Jr.^ b. April 18, 1843, d. May 

23, 1846. 

3 Nancy Eglantine Hart^ b. Jan. 9, 1846. 

4 Susan Eliza Hart^ b. July 15, 1850, d. Sept. 28, 

1852. 

5 John Prudden Hart^ b. March 6, 1853, d. July 18, 

1868. 

(22) III. James Davis'^, born April 2, 1820, married 
Elizabeth Ann Bristol of Wilson, N. Y., Dec. 14, 
1843. He died June 5, 1848. Had two children. + 

(23) IV. Henry^^ born Nov. 29, 1821, married Sarah 
A. Hulbard of Ridgeway, N. Y., Sept. 4, 1844. 
Had six children. Lives in Medina^ N. Y. + 

(24) V. GiLES^ born Oct. 26, 1823, married Susan L. 
Scovell of Darien, N. Y., Jan. 31, 1849; died Nov. 
10, 1900, in Millville, N. Y. Had eight children. + 

(25) VI. Lewis^ born June 19, 1825 ; married Eliza- 
beth A. B., widow of James Davis Prudden of Wil- 
son, N. Y., Nov. 7, 1849. He died June i, 1876. 
Had three children. Elizabeth Prudden married 
William J. Moss March 7, 1879; died July 17, 
1895. + 

VII. John Andrew^ born Feb. i, 3831; died 
Dec. 5, 1847. 



GENEALOGY—SEVENTH GENERATION. 9 1 

VIII. Orange Dwight^^ born Feb. 28, 1835 ; 
died Dec. 17, 1847. 

(16) Children of Fletcher Newton Prudden^ 
(son of Fletcher^, John'*, John^, Samuel^, Peter^) 
and Anne Parsons were : 

I. Newton Alphonso^, born April 24, 1805, 
married Clarissa Deming as second wife; had one 
child by first wife, who died young. He was living, 
at last accounts, at Ann Arbor, Mich. 

II. Fletcher^, died in infancy at Enfield. 
HI. Catherine Newton^, born March i, 1809, 

married George Thompson of Enfield, Conn., Oct. 
9, 1834; died at Rockville, Conn., April 20, 1866. 
She had three children. 

1 Newton Prudden Thompson^ b. East Windsor, 

Conn., Aug. 19, 1835; m. Juliette Stoughton. 

2 Charles Parsons Thompson^ b. April 7, 1839; m. 

Elizabeth Bowman ; lived in Rockville. Had six 
children. 

3 Fletcher Allen Thompson^ b. May 9, 1847; m. 

Laura A. Southwick. Had six children. 

(17) Children of Joseph J. Prudden^ (son of 
Newton^, John*, John^, SamueP, Peter^) and 
Nancy Strong were : 

I. John Newton^ died in 1832, aged 21. 

II. Joseph Strong^, born in Milford, Conn., 
June 23, 1814. Lived in Sandersville, Ga., and in 
New York. 



92 PETER PRUDDEN. 

III. William Henry^ born March 7, 1824. 
Lived in Georgia. 

IV. Grace Ann^, died 1835, aged 13. 

V. Sarah^^ died in infancy. 

Eighth Generation. 

{18) Children of Sidney Clark Prudden"^ (son of 
Samuel^, SamueP, Samuel*, SamueP, Samuel^.. 
Peter^) and Isabella Simonton were: 

I. Julia Maria^ born Feb. 18, 1844; died July 
18, 1853. 

II. Susan LouISA^ married Mr. B. W. Hunt. 
Lives in Eatonton^ Ga. 

III. Sarah Jane^, born Aug. 5, 1847. Lives in 
Eatonton, Ga. 

IV. Annabelle^, born April i, 185 1; married 
to Evan Ezelle June 5, 1872. Has two children. 
Lives in Eatonton, Ga. 

1 Mariebelle Ezelle®, b. March 26, 1873; married to 

William Pollock Learned. 

2 Percy Powell Ezelle", b. Dec. 20, 1874. 

V. Samuel Bailey^, born July 2, 1857; died 
Nov. 5, 1861. 

(19) Children of Nathan Sherman Prudden"^ 
(son of Samuel^, SamueP, Samuel*, Samuel^, 
Samuel-, Peter^ ) and Amelia Kieth were : 



GENEALOGY— EIGHTH GENERATION. 93 

I. Arthur B.^ born Feb. 23, 1857. 
(26) II. William Kieth^ born Jan. 29, 1859; mar-' 
ried Jennie Elizabeth Whitney. Has two daugh- 
ters ; Hves in Lansing, Mich. + 
III. Frank^, born June 29, 1862. 

Children of William Carey Prudden'^ (son 
of Joseph^, SamueP, Samuel*, SamueP, Samuel^, 
Peter^ ) and Margaret Booth were : 

I. Augustus®. 
II. Mary Jane^ 

(21) Children of George Peter Prudden''^ (son of 
Peter^, SamueP, Samuel*, SamueP, SamueP, 
Peter^ ) and Eliza Johnson were : 

I. Edward Payson^ born June 8, 1841 ; died 
April 14, 1843. 

II. Henry Johnson^, born in Medina, N. Y., 
March 16, 1843 > married Mary Jennett Bassett of 
North Haven, Conn., Sept. 18, 1889; died July 2, 
1890, in New Haven, Conn. 

This is the Henry J. Prudden who collected the 
material of this book. He was a successful busi- 
ness man, who nevertheless found leisure for wide 
reading and travel. He gave valuable service to 
the church and community, particularly in the line 
of Sunday School and missionary work. While his 



94 PETER PRUDDEN. 

preference would have led him through college into 
professional life, the failure of his father's health 
turned him into a business career, which he pursued 
with conscientious fidelity, though never forgetting 
the higher values of culture and usefulness. At the 
time of his death he was President of the State 
Sunday School Association of Connecticut. His 
influence will long be felt among those who came in 
contact with his earnest, unselfish spirit, in business, 
in society, in the Church of the Redeemer of which 
he was deacon, and whose Sunday School he super- 
intended for fifteen years, and in the work of the 
Welcome Hall Mission in New Haven, which he 
inaugurated, as well as through the legacies which 
he left in aid of many benevolent enterprises. 
(27) HI. Theodore Philander^, born in Middle- 
bury, Conn., March 14, 1847; married first, Oct. 
24, 1877, Harriette Collins Terry of Hartford, 
Conn., who died Jan 28, 1886; married second, 
Oct. 20, 1887, Margaret H. Bull of Quincy, Ills. 
Had six children. 

He is a Congregational clergyman, and was grad- 
uated from Yale College in 1869, and from Yale 
Theological Seminary in 1873, having spent a year 
in teaching in Branford, Conn. After a year and 
a half of travel and study abroad, he was ordained 
pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church in 
Lansing, Mich., Dec. 20, 1874. He remained in 
Lansing until May, 1885, when he became pastor 



GENEALOGY— EIGHTH GENERATION. 95 

of the Leavitt St. Church in Chicago, Ills. In 
March, 1894, he removed to West Newton, Mass., 
where he still lives and is pastor of the Second 
Congregational Church of Newton. He received 
the degree of D.D. from Illinois College in 1890. + 

IV. Theophil Mitchell^, born in Middlebury, 
Conn., July 7, 1849 j graduated from the Yale Scien- 
tific School in 1872. He taught Chemistry in the 
Scientific School while he pursued medical studies 
at Yale for two years. After a year of study in 
New York, he took his degree in medicine at Yale 
in 1875. Following a year of hospital practice, he 
studied abroad for two years and on his return 
became an Instructor in the Pathological Laboratory 
of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New 
York (the Medical Department of Columbia Col- 
lege), where he has now held for several years the 
chair of Professor of Pathology. He has pub- 
lished a series of researches on medical and sanitary 
subjects, as well as articles of popular interest. He 
received the Honorary Degree of LL.D. from Yale 
College in 1897; is unmarried. 

V. Lillian Eliza^, born in Southbury, Conn., 
Dec. 3, 1852, graduated from Vassar College in 
1875. Lives in New Haven, Conn. ; unmarried. 

(22) Children of James Davis Prudden^ (son of 
Peter^, SamueP, Samuel^, SamueP, SamueP, 
Peter^ ) and Elizabeth A. Bristol were : 



PETER PRUDDEN. 

(28) I. James Elihu Burritt^ born March 8, 1846; 
married Francelia Fitch of Wilson, N. Y., Nov. 7, 
1872, who died July 5, 1897; had five children. + 
Married second, July 2y, 1899, Emma McCollum. 
II. Frances Edna^ born Sept. 27, 1848; mar- 
ried first, Jonathan Hill of Provincetown, Mass. 
Married second, William Quinby Seawel, April 25, 
1889. Had one child, Mabel Prudden SeaweP, 
born Jan. 5, 1890. 

Children of Henry Prudden^ (son of Peter^, 
SamueP, Samuel*, SamueP, Samuel^, Peter^ ) and 
Sarah Hulbard were : 

I. Emily Nancy^ born Aug. 20, 1845; "^^^" 
ried E. P. Searle of Medina, N. Y., May 3, 1865 ; 
lives in Council Bluffs, Iowa. 

Had four children : 

1 Robinson Prudden Searle®, b. June 19, 1866; m. 

Marie Antoinette Baxter of Adam's Basin, N. 
Y., Dec. 27, 1889. Has two children. 

i. Edward Baxter Searle'", b. Sept 21, 1890. 
ii. Genevieve Searle'", b. June 23, 1898. 

2 Henry Allan Searle^ b. April 21, 1870; m. Edith 

Smith of Council Blufifs, Iowa, Dec. 25, 1895. 
Has two children. 

i. Henry Allan Searle, Jr.^°, b. Nov. 12, 1896. 
ii. Donald Albert Searle'", b. Oct. 5, 1899. 

3 Charles Edward Searle^ b. Nov. 9, 1872. 
. 4 Fred. Howard Searle", b. Feb. 7, 1874. 



GENEALOGY— EIGHTH GENERATION. 9/ 

II. Harriet Eliza^^ born Sept. 25, 1847. Un- 
married. 

III. Mary Goodrich^ born Aug. 15, 1850; 
married Charles Finney Curtiss Dec. 30, 1872 ; lives 
in Rochester, N. Y. Had four children. 

1 Mary Elizabeth Curtiss', b. Oct. 13, 1873. 

2 Charles Lyell Curtiss^ b. Sept. 18, 1876, d. Jan. 

16, 1892. 

3 Florence Eglantine Curtiss', b. March 28, 1878. 

4 Ethel Loraine Curtiss', b. May 5, 1890. 

IV. James Henry^ born April 26, 1854, died 
April 29, 1855. 

V. Edward Hulbard^ born Sept. 28, 1859; 
married Addie Morton of Barre, N. Y., Jan. 26, 
1880. Has two children;, lives at Beaver Crossing, 
Nebraska. + 

VI. Sarah Loraine^, born Sept. 9, 1868, died 
Dec. I, 1895. 

(24) Children of Giles Prudden''' (son of Peter^, 
SamueP, Samuel^, SamueP, Samuel^, Peter^) 
and Susan Scovell were : 

I. Edna L.^ born Nov. 26, 1849 ; married Wil- 
liam H. Allen, Jan. 12, 1882. Has three children. 

1 George Allen', b. April 5, 1883. 

2 Lee P. Allen', b. Jan. 12, 1885. 

3 Susan Edna Allen', b. May 8, 1888. 

7 



98 PETER PRUDDEN. 

(30) II. AsHER MooN^ born Dec. 23, 1850; married 
Lottie Wilson of Carleton, N. Y., Oct. 5, 1876. 
Lives in Duluth, Minn. Had four children. + 

(31) III. Halsey B. S.^ born Nov. 11, 1853; mar- 
ried Nellie V. George at Atchison, Kan. Dec. 11, 
1884 Lives in Chicago, Ills. Has three chil- 
dren. + 

(32) IV. Arthur E.^, born Sept. 22, 1855; married 
Florence E. Davis of Duluth, Minn., Oct. 13, 1884. 
Lives in Duluth, Minn. Has four children. + 

(33) V. DeWitt Clinton Scovill^, born Oct. 2, 
1857; married Jennie B. Letts of Frankfort, Ills. 
Lives in Kansas City, Mo. Has two children. + 

(34) VI. Willis Giles^, born Jan. 29, i860; mar- 
ried Ida Jane Ferris of Millville, N. Y. Lives in 
Millville, N. Y. Has one child. + 

(ZS) VII. George Henry^ born April 9, 1864; mar- 
ried Annie M. Bywater of Buffalo, N. Y. Lives in 
Duluth, Minn. Has two children. + 

VIII. Hiram McCullom^^ born Aug. 25, 1865, 
died Aug. 15, 1867. 

(25) Children of Lewis Prudden''^ (son of Peter^, 
SamueP, Samuel^, SamueP, Samuel-, Peter^) 
and Elizabeth Bristol Prudden were: 

(2,^) I. Orrin Dwight^ born Oct. 3, 1851; married 
Ida A. Quade of Lockport, N. Y., Oct. 30, 1878. 
Lives in Lockport, N. Y. Has four children. + 



;; 



-• # 



GENEALOGY— NINTH GENERATION. 99 

(37) II. Albert Bristol^ born Nov. 30, 1854; mar- 
ried Henrietta H. Hopkins of Wilson, N. Y., July 
12, 1876. Lives in Lockport, N. Y. Has three 
children. + 

{l'^) III. Walter LEWIS^ born March 3, 1858; mar- 
ried E. Stella Field June 23, 1887. Lives in Lock- 
port, N. Y. Has two children. + 



Ninth Generation. 

(26) Children of William Keith Prudden^ (son 
of Nathan^, Samuel^, SamueP, Samuel"^, SamueP, 
SamueP, Peter^) and Jennie E. Whitney are: 

I. Amy^ born Aug. 31, 1885. 

II. Edwina^ born April 19, 1887. 

(27) Children of Theodore P. Prudden^ (son of 
George''^, Peter^, Samuel^, Samuel*, SamueP 
Samuel^, Peter^) and Margaret H. Bull are: 

I. George Gold^,^' | born in Chicago, Ills., 

II. Elinor^ I Dec. 23, 1889. 

III. Theodore Mitchell^ ) born in Chicago, 

IV. Lilian Margaret®, 3 Ills., Feb. i, 1891. 
— V. Edith®, born July 31, 1893, in Camden, Me. 

VI. Elizabeth Bull®, born in Camden, Me., 
Aug. 29, 1895. 

* Died Dec. 2Z, 1893. 

IL«fC 



100 PETER PRUDDEN. 

(28) Children of James Elihu Burritt Prudden® 
(son of James Davis^, Peter^, SamueP, Samuel*, 
SamueP, Samuel", Peter^) and Francelia Fitch 
are: 

I. Grace L.^, born Feb. 11, 1874. 

II. Burritt F.^, born Aug. 16, 1875; graduated 
from Williams College in 1897. 

III. Florence E.^ born May 16, 1877; mar- 
ried July, 1899. 

IV. Clara E.^, born Feb. 7, 1883. 

V. Dennis^ born June 3, 1884. 

(29) Children of Edward Hulbard Prudden^ 
(son of Henry''', Peter^, SamueP, Samuel*, 
Samuel^, SamueP, Peter^) and Addie Morton 
are: 

I. Willis Edward^, born Oct. 20, 1883. 

II. Earle Hulbard^, born Feb. 11, 1891. 

(30) Children of Asher M. Prudden^ (son of 
Giles*^, Peter^, SamueP, Samuel*, SamueP, 
Samuel^, Peter^ ) and Lottie Wilson are : 

I. Edna May^, born May 30, 1879. 

II. Roy Asher^, born Nov. 15, 1882. 

III. Wilson Hiram**, born June 5, 1884. 

IV. Benetia Pearl^ born Oct. 2, 1891, died 
May 15, 1892. 



GENEALOGY— NINTH GENERATION. lOI 

(31) Children of Halsey B. S. Prudden^ (son of 
Giles^, Peter^, SamueP, Samuel*, Samuel^, 
Samuel^, Peter^) and Nellie George are: 

I. Gladys^, born April 12, 1886. 
II. Halsey George^, born Sept. 23, 1889. 
III. Mildred^, born Aug. 26, 1893. 

(32) Children of Arthur E. Prudden^ (son of 
Giles'^, Peter^, SamueP, Samuel*, SamueP, 
Samuel^, Peter^) and Florence E. Davis are: 

I. Elsie^, born June 12, 1886. 

II. Clyde Edward^ born Jan. 2, 1888. 

III. Mildred Anita^, born Aug. 18, 1892. 

IV. Weston Davis^, born Sept. 24, 1894. 

^'hi) Children of DeWitt C. S. Prudden^ (son of 
Giles'^, Peter^, SamueP, Samuel*, Samuel^, 
SamueP, Peter^) and Jennie B. Letts are: 

I. Laura^ bom May 31, 1895. 
II. Victor^ born Aug. 21, 1899. 

(34) Children of Willis Giles Prudden^ (son of 
Giles^ Peter^ SamueP, Samuel*, SamueP, 
SamueP, Peter^ ) and Ida J. Ferris are : 

Ferris Giles^ born April 9, 1888. 



102 PETER PRUDDEN. 

(35) Children of George H. Prudden^ (son of 
Giles^, Peter^, SamneP, Samuel'*, Samuel^, 
Samuel-, Peter^) and Annie M. Bywater are: 

I. George H.^ born Feb. 8, 1893. 

II. Earl DeWitt^^ born April 6, 1895. 

(36) Children of Orrin Dwight^ (son of Lewis''', 
Peter^, SamueP, Samuel*, Samuel^, Samuel^, 
Peter^) and Ida Ouade are: 

I. Alice Maud^ born July 10, 1880. 

II. Paul Irwin^, born Sept. i, 1881. 

III. Orrin Niel^ born Nov. 11, 1883. 

IV. Sarah Helen^^ born March 22, 1886. 

(37) Children of Albert Bristol Prudden^ (son 
of Lewis'^, Peter^, SamueP, Samuel*, Samuel^, 
Samuel-, Peter^) and Henrietta Hopkins are: 

I. Helene Maud^, born Oct. i, 1877. 
II. Frances Mabel^, born April 15, 1879. 
HI. William Hopkins^ born June 15, 1882. 

(38) Children of Walter Lewis Prudden (son 
of Lewis'^, Peter^, SamueP, Samuel*, Samuel^, 
Samuel^, Peter^) and Stella Field are: 

I. Russel Field^, born Oct. 4, 1892. 
II. Dorothy Elizabeth^, born Jan. 27, 1897. 



APPENDIX. 



JAMES PRUDDEN. 
I. 

It has always been assumed that James Prudden, 
one of the first planters of Milford, was a brother of 
Peter Prudden, from the fact that in the part of the 
church records written by Peter Prudden he speaks 
of "Bro. James Prudden." As he alludes to other 
Milford pioneers by the same brotherly title, this 
is no conclusive evidence of relationship. 

James Prudden's name first appears in the assign- 
ment of land in New Haven_, and later in the allot- 
ments in Milford. He was admitted to the Milford 
church October 13, 1639, and died in 1648. He 
had two daughters, who both married soon after the 
Milford settlement. 

Ann married Samuel Coley of Milford, February 
14, 1640; died October, 1689. Her will may be 
found in the New Haven Probate Records, Vol. II, 
page 45. She had seven children: Peter, born 
1640; Abilene, born 1643; Samuel, born 1646; 
Sarah, born 1648; Mary, born 1651 ; Hannah, born 
1654; Thomas, born 1659. 

Elizabeth married first in 1643, William Slough, 
She married second, Roger Prichard in 1653, and 
removed to New Haven. 



104 PETER PRUDDEN. 

11. 

The following extract from the parish register at 
Kingswalden is the basis of the inference on page 
3, that the "James" whose wife died there in i6i8, 
is James Prudden of Milford. 

Register Book of Burials for the parish of Kings- 
walden — county of Hertford. 



1560 Petrus Prudden, Sept. 27th. Jan'y A. D. 1560. 
1566 Prudden, filia Eli Prudden, 19 1566. 

1600 Sara Prudden filia Eli Prudden, Apertha 18, 1600. 
1600 filia Eli Prudden 28 Die Monti 1600. 

1606 Elizabeth Prudden uxor Eli Prudden Seputh 15, 1606 

1612 Joan Prudden buried last day of May, 1612 

1616 Edw. Prudden both buried first day of Julie, 1616 

1618 Eiz wife of James Prudden buried 27 May, 1618 

1620 Thomas son of Edw'd Prudden buried 17 of A. D. 
1620 



I hereby certify that the above nine entries are true and 

correct copies of the burials of the above as entered in the 

Register Book of burials in parish of Kingswalden in 

county of Hertford. 

Alexander Buchanan^ 

Incumbent of Kingswalden. 

III. 

We find memoranda in Mr. Henry J. Prudden's 
note books of the inspection of Directories in some 
thirty English towns and shires, and of letters 
written to all residents who bore the name of Prud- 



APPENDIX. 105 

den, asking for information in regard to the early- 
history of the family. The replies failed to throw 
any further light on the source of the family in 
England. Similar efforts in searching for informa- 
tion in the Doomsday book, in the Calendar of State 
Papers for 1638, in the Chancery proceedings, and 
the matriculation lists of Cambridge University 
were fruitless. The Oxford list covering the years 
from 1 53 1 to 1659 ^^^ ^^ot been deciphered and 
arranged for publication when his notes were taken. 
The search of probate records, parish registers and 
Star Chamber proceedings all failed to give definite 
information, but furnished him with the data for 
some inferences, and the following old wills. 

IV. 

Will of Thomas Prudden. 

Extracted from the Principal Registry of the Probate 
Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court of 
Justice. 



In the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. 

Thys Will made the xiiiith day of Auguste in the j'-eres 
of the reignes of Philipp and Marye by the Grace of God 
Kinge and Queue of Englande Spayne Fraunce both the 
Sicilies Jerusalem and Irelande, defendours of the Faith, 
Archduke of Austriche Duke of Burgundye Millayne and 
Brabant, Counties of Haspurge Flaunders and Tyroll the — 
. . . witnesseth That I Thomas Prudden wholle of 
mynde and memorye make my Testamente and last Will 



I06 PETER PRUDDEN. 

in maner and fourme folowinge that is to saie I bequeth 
my Sowle to Almightie God and to all the holie Companye 
of Heaven and my bodye to be buryed in the Parishe 
Churche yarde of Kings Walden. Also I bequethe to the 
Mother Churche of Lincolne mid and to the Highe Aulter 
in Kinge Walden iid. Also I will to Christyne my wif 
twelve poundes six shillings and cighte pence and that she 
shall have the one end of the plor and two cofers and the 
bedde that we lye on and the sixe payre of shets and 
eighte pewter platters and a cowe and tenne sheepe and 
the keepeing of theym so longe as the lease lasteth and two 
stone of Wolle for one yere to make her rayment withall 
and meate and drinke of theym so longe as the lease lasteth 
and foure hyves of bees liable to hyve and if the said 
Christyne do marye then she shall have none of the parlor. 
Also I will to evy God childe mid, and they will sett it 
and also to evy childes childe an ewe all the rest of my 
goodes and my lease I do will unto Petur Prudden Willm 
Prudden and Edward Prudden my sonnes whiche I have 
chosen to be my Executours of this my last Will payeng 
my legacys and detts and Petur and Willm to have three 
parts between theym and Edwarde to have the fourth 
parte. And the thre to kepe house all togither till suche 
tyme as one of theym canne agree to bye forthe an others 
parte And loke whiche of theym wt out a lawful cause 
stryve first for theire portion shall lose the fourthe parte 
of yt. And also I will that if the said Willm or Edwarde 
marrye that then the saide Petur and Willm and Edwarde 
shall beare ev'y one according to theire portion. Also I 
have chosen Richarde Cowp to be myne Oversear and he 
shall have five shillings for his paynes And yf the saide 
Richard Cowpe take any journeys of my busynes that 
Petur Willm and Edward shall pay his chardge. Also I 
will to John Rudde xi s of money or sixe quarters of barlie 
whiche of theym he will and he to be paied at suche tyme 



APPENDIX. 107 

as he entreth of his farme in Kynge Walden. And if the 
saide John Rudde die his wif to have yt neverthelesse. 
Also I will to Richarde Cowp xi s. John Siblye Thomas 
Cowp and Edwarde Cowp be witnesses of this Will wt 
other moo. Memorand. That this bill witnesseth that I 
Thomas Prudden do owe to John Prudden of Newe Wyle 
Ende £vi whereof he is paid £1111 of theym. And also to 
Thomas Prudden of Brechwoode Grene tenne pounds. 
Also to John Newman in 11. Also to John Samme fourtie 
shillings. Also to Sister Samme xxvi s. viii d. Also 
to John Cooste x s. and also to Olive Prudden xx s. the 
whiche mony to be paid at the discretion of the Executours 
to theym that have most nede furst and the other to tarye 
the longer. 

Probatum fuit suprascriptum testamentu cora Magro 
Gwaltero Haddon begun Doctore Curie Prerogative cant 
custode sive comissario sede Archiepati otm iam vacante 
duodecimo die mensis Februari Anno Dni Willimo quin- 
(1558) gentesimo quinquagesimo octavo Jurament Petri et Willmi 
Prudden psonati pntm et Xpoferi Smythe pocuratoris 
Edwardi Prudden executor in hmoi testamento noiatore 
Ac approbatu et insumatu Comissaqs fuit Administratio 
om et singlor boroz juriu et prefat executoribus de bene 
&c. Ac de pleno et fideli Inventario Neenon de vero et 
piano compot reddend &c Jurat. 

V. 

Will of John Boyse 1619. 

Extracted from the Registry of the Exchequer Court of 
York. 

In the Name of God Amen the XIII day of Julie in the 
seventeenth yeare of the Reigne of our Sovereigne Lord 
James by the grace of God King of England France and 



I08 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Ireland Defender of the faith &c. and of Scotland the L 
Ilth and in the year of or Lord God according to the 
course and computacon of the Church of England 1619 I 
John Boyse of Hallifax in the County of Yorke Preacher 
of God's word and being of sound mynde and pfect mem- 
orie (praised be God) doe declare make and publish this 
my last Will and Testament in writing contej'^ning herein 
my full will and mynde in manner and forme following 
that is to say first and principallie I commend my soule 
into the hands of Almightie God trusting and believing 
by the death and obedience of Christ Jesus to have full 
and free remission of all my synnes and life evlasting and 
my bodie I comitt to the earth from whence it came and 
touching my worldie estate first my will and mynde is 
that Johan my wife shall have her rights of in and forth 
of my landes and tents goods and chattells according to 
the laws of this Realme and the custome of the Province 
wherein I dwell. Item, I give the some of Vlllf to be 
lent to the poor of Hallifax at the discretion of my 
Overseers — hereafter named or the greater pt of them and 
I request that the best pvision that may be, be made for 
the contynuance thereof from tyme to tyme for ever. Item 
I give to the poore of Edston where my land lyeth. fortie 
shillings. The residue and remainder of all my goodes 
chattells creditts and debts after my true debts paid funrall 
expenses discharged and the legacies before or after in this 
my will given deducted I do give devise and bequeath to 
and amongst my five daughters equallie to be devided, and 
touching my landes and tents my will and mynde is that 
one full and cleare third .pt of all and singular my mes- 
suages landes tcntcs rents revcons and hereditamts what- 
soever lyeing and being in Welburne and Edston in the 
said Countie of York or elsewhere shall ymediatlie after 
my decease discend and come unto Samuell Boys my 
eldest Sonne and also one other third pt. thereof, ymediatlie 



APPENDIX. 109 

after the decease of the said Johan my wife wch. said 
second pt. my will and mynde is that my said wife shall 
have and enioj'S during tearme of her life in lieu and 
recompence of her dower of and in my landes and tents 
and further my will and mynde is and I doe give devise 
and bequeath out of that her and last third pt. of my said 
messuages lands tents and premisses unto my said five 
daughters one annuitye or yearly rent of VI £ XIII s III d 
of lawful English money in the feast of St.Martin the 
Bishopp in Winter and Penthecost by even porcons for 
and during the tearme of ten years .next and ymediatlie 
enseuing my decease and I will that for non paymt of the 
said yearlie rent or any pt. thereof it shalbe well lawfull 
to and for my said Daughter to distreyne in and upon 
the same third pt. of my said lands and tents and the 
distresses to impound or retaine until the said yearlie rent 
of VI li XIII s nil d they be fully satisfied and paid and 
wch. said last third pt. and remainder of all my said 
messuages, lands, tents, rents revcons and hereditamts wth. 
the appurteunces charged wth. the said yearly rent of VI li 
XIII s nil d as aforesaid, I doe give devise and bequeath 
unto John Boys my younger sonne his heires and assignes 
to his and their onelie and pp use and behoof for ev and 
further my will and mynde is that if it happen the said 
Samuell my sonne to dye before he accomplish the full 
aige. of XXI tie yeres whereby such pt. of my said landes 
and tentes as after my decease shall discend unto him shall 
come or fall unto the said John my Sonne then I doe give 
devise and bequeath unto my said five Daughters (ov and 
besides their form yearly rent of VI £ XIII s. IIII d. one 
other anuitie or yearly rent of X i of lawful money of 
England for and during the tearme of ten yeares next 
ensewing the decease of the said Samuell my Sonne soe 
dyeing wthin aige as aforesaid and to be levied or pceived 
of in or forth of the said third pt. of my said messuages 



no PETER PRUDDEN. 

lands tents and pmisses lymitted unto the said Samuell my 
Sonne ymediatlie after my decease and for which said 
yearly rent of X i it shalbe well lawfull to and for my 
said daughters to distreyne in manner and forme aforesaid 
and if it happen any of my said Daughters to dye before 
their aige of XXI ty yeares or mariage then my will and 
mynde is that the pt. or porcon of him or them soe dyeing 
shall remain and be devided as well of and in my goods 
as of and in the said sevall yearly rents to and amongst 
the residue of my Daughters then living. Item, I give to 
my Brother Willm Boys £ V. Item, I give to John Stucoe 
of Biddingden my wives Brother i X if and when he shall 
come to Halifax to the comforting of my said wife and I 
do name make and appointe the said Johan my wife sole 
and whole Executrix of this my last Will and Testamt. 
The Tuicon and govment of all my children I doe comitt 
unto my said wife and I do request my loving friends Mr, 
Dcot Favour, Vicar of Hallifax Willm Boys, my Brother 
John Boys of Hallifax Humfrey Ducke of the same, 
Samuell Lister of Southowrome, John Whitley of Over- 
deen and Wm. Whittaker of Hallifax to be the Overseers 
or supervisors of this my last Will and Testam'y praying 
them to be assistants to my executor and children wth. 
their best countenance consent and counsell concerning this 
my will as my trust is in them. It Witnes whereof I have 
hereunto sett my hand and seal the day and yeare first 
above written. 

This Will was proved in the Exechequer Court of 
(13) York on the eighth day of February, 1620 by 

Joane Boyes Relict of the deceased the sole 

Executrix in the said Will named. 

H. A. HUDSON, 

Deputy Registrar. 



APPENDIX. 1 1 1 

VI. 

Will of Joane Boyse wife of John Boyse 1630. 

Extracted from the Registry of the Exchequer Court 
of York. 

In the Name of God Amen the one and twentith day 
of June in the sixte yeare of the Reign of our Sovereigne 
Charles — by the grace of God King of England Scotland 
France and Ireland Defender of the fayth etc. and in the 
yeare of our Lord according to the — compatacon of the 
Church of England one thousand sixe hundred and thirty 
I Joane Boyes of Hallifax in the County of Yorke Wid- 
dowe, being of sound mynde and pfect memory, praysed, 
be God, calling to mynde the certenty of death and the 
uncertenty of the tyme thereof, for more quietnes to be 
had and continued amongst my children after my decease 
doe make declare and publish this my last Will and Testa- 
ment in writing conteyning herein my full will and mynde 
in mann and forme following, that is to say, first and 
principally, I give and comend my soule into the hands of 
Almighty God my most loving Creator touching and 
assuredly believing by the death and obedience of Jesus 
Christ my alone Saviour to have full and free remission 
of all my sins and life evlasting and my body I comitt to 
the earth from whence it came and — touching my worldly 
estate wherewth God hath blessed me — first my will and 
mynde is and I doe devise assigne appoynt and comitt the 
wardeshipp marriage tuicion and govnement of John Boyes 
my Sonne and of his lands tents and hereditants and all 
my interest and right thereunto my loving sonne in lawe 
Mr. Robert Symonde of Sowerby my loving Brother in 
lawe Willm Boyes and to my loving Frends Thomas 
Bynnes of Halifax, Humprey Ducke of the same and John 
Mitchell of Boothestowne hartyly requesting them to be 



112 PETER PRUDDEN. 

carefull for his religious educacon and bringing upp for 
the pservacon of his estate and for the disposicon of the 
rents and pfitts of his lands as in and by this my will 
I shall expresse. Now my mynde is that the some of 
fowerscore pounds — wch. I owe unto my said sonne 
Symonds and wch. I pmised to pay him in marriage wth 
his wife my daughter shall be paid him by twenty pounds 
ayeare att evy Christtide during fower yeares now next 
coming out of the rents yssues and pfitts of the said lands 
and tents. Item, my will and mynde is and I doe give and 
bequeath unto Sylence Boyes, Anna Boyes, and Joane 
Boyes my three daughters so much money as together wth 
their porcons left unto them by their Father shall amount 
to each of them the some of two hundred pounds, the same 
to be taken out of my goods chattells and debts so farre 
as the same shall extend and that wch remaineth to be 
taken out of the rents and pfitts of the said lands and tents 
as the same shall come in after the discharge of the said 
fowerscore pounds and above the maintenance of my said 
sonne concerning whome my will and mynde is that he 
shall be brought upp att learning. If that by and att the 
discretion of my said five frends before named hee shalbe 
found capable and fitt thereunto, to whose wisdome and 
religious care I referre the same and my will mynde and 
meaning is that the surplusage and remainder of the rents 
yssues and profitts of the said lands and tents during the 
mynoritie of my said sonne after the dischardge of the 
said somes of money limitted to my said sonne Symonds 
and my daughters as aforesaid and above the educacon 
and maintenance of my said sonne att learning or other- 
wise shalbe equally devided to and amongst my said fower 
daughters each one a rateable pte thereof and my will and 
mynde is that my said sonne shal att his age of twenty 
one years if hee soe long live enter unto his lands and 



APPENDIX. 113 

tents wthout paying any thinge for his wardeshipp or mar- 
riage to any the psons before named to whom I have 
comitted him and my will and mynde is that if my sonne 
Symonds shall have occasion to lay out the said money 
wch I owe him as aforesaid before the same shalbecome 
payable by this my will that then the same shalbe paid to 
him out of my goods and chattells and I doe name make 
and appoynt the said Sylence my Daughter sole and whole 
Executrix of this my last Will and Testament. Jn Witnes 
whereof I have hereunto sett my hand -and seall the day 
and yeare abovesaid. Signed Testatricis (L.S.) Sealld 
and signed in the psence of us John West — Mich; Ward — 
Hufr : Drake. 

This Will was proved in the Exchequer 
Court of York on the twenty eighth day 
(11) of April, 1631 by Silence Robinson wife 

of Thomas Robinson, Daughter of the 
deceased the sole Executrix in the said 
Will named. 

Ent'd. 
J.D. 
21/9/85. 

VII. 

Extracts from New Haven Colonial Records. 

"At a court of magristrates held at New Haven for ye 
Jurisdiction the 28th of may 1655. 

Hanna Spencer being convicted of immodest connection 
with Wm. Ellit on a boat between Milford, & Stratford, 
was fined ten pounds, and to be present at the whipping 
post when Ellit was corrected, for Hannah Spencer's fine 
of ten pounds, Mr Prudden now engaged to ye court to see 
it paid." 

8 



114 PETER PRUDDEN. 

VIII. 

In 1656 the question of the planting of Paugaset (Derby) 
being under discussion at the General Court, Mr. Prudden, 
in behalf of the town of Milford, objected to it. 

"The business aboute the planting of Paugaset, pro- 
pounded at ye Generl Court in October last, & in some 
pt assented to, & now again in question & what then passed 
being read, the Magistrates, & Deputies for Milford 
objected against it, & Mr Prudden, on behalf e of the towne 
declared that it would be very predjudiciall to Milford 
severall ways ; so much as they could not comfortably cary 
on their occasions there by reason of the straightness of 
accommodations for comonady for their cattle, wh they 
should suffer, by reason that Stratford river & New Haven 
bounds doe confine you to so narrow a compass." 

IX. 

1653, March 22, at Gen'l Court, "The Deputies of Milford 
were desired to speak to Mr Prudden from ye Court, to 
desire him to preach here at New Haven upon ye Election 
day next." 

X. 

1656, 25th of the I2th month, "The churches in these 
colonies are sensible of an afflicting hand of God, in the 
removal of Mr Whitfield, the removal of Mr Hook, & the 
death of Mr. Prudden." 

XI. 

1657 (page 133) "Was presented to the General Court, 
the last will, & testament of Mr Peter Prudden, late pastour 
of the church at Milford, made the 26th day of July 1656, 
witnessed by his own hand, & declared to be in the presence 
of Timoth Baldwin, Richard Piatt, & John Brown." 



APPENDIX. 1 1 5 

"An inventory of the estate of the said Mr Peter 
Prudden, was also presented amounting to £924, 18 s, & 
5d, prized by Alexander Bryan, & James Roggers, & by 
them testified upon oath to be a just apprismt according 
to their best light, at a court at Milford ye 4th of Decem- 
ber 1656, & Mrs Joanna Prudden, ye widow, & executrix 
of ye desease upon oath affirmed that it is a full, & true 
inventory according to her best knowledge except some 
reconing betwixt the town of Milford that at — present 
could not be cleared." (This inventory was taken the 
2nd of September 1656.) 

XII. 

Letter of Peter Prudden to John Winthrop Jr. 

To the Wop', his much honored friend, John Winthrop 
Esq. at Pekoct d d. 

Worthy Sir. This Bearer, George Alsop, being neces- 
sitated to take this winter journey, into ye Bay, that he 
may pass for England in the ship wt is now preparing for 
yt voage, and being altogether a stranger to the way, I am 
bold to intreat you to show him what favor you can, and 
helpe him withe a guide to conduct him in the best, and 
safest way, whom, he will satisfy for his paynes, and I 
shall acknowledge myselfe obliged unto you for any kind- 
ness you show to him, he being a friend of myne, whom I 
should have dissuaded from such an uncomfortable journey, 
but yt I conceived the weightiness of his occasions in 
England, call him to undertake it. This not doubting of 
your best furtherence of him herein wth remembrance of 
my best respects, and service, I commend you to ye Lord, 
and rest ' 

Yours to be commanded to his power, 

Peter Prudden. 

Endorsed by John Winthrop Jr 
Mr Prudden of Milford the pastor" 



Il6 PETER PRUDDEN. 

XIII. 

The oldest paper in the possession of the Prud- 
den family is the letter here reprinted, written by 
Ezekiel Cheever to Mr. Prudden in his own defense. 

Ezekiel Cheever^ famous as the "Great School- 
master" throughout New England, came with the 
first settlers to New Haven. He was one of the 
twelve men chosen as "fitt for the foundaco work 
of the church." After twelve years of service in 
the ''better trayning upp of youth in this towne" 
(N. H. Col. Rec), he went to Ipwich, Mass., and 
successively to Charlestown, Boston, Salem, and 
finally the Boston ''Latine School" secured his ser- 
vices. His Latin Grammar was used for more than 
a century in the schools of New England. He lived 
until 1706. Mr. Cotton Mather used his flowery 
genius to its utmost in his sermon and poetical essay 
in memory of Mr. Cheever. 

"Ink is too vile a liquor; Liquid Gold 

Should fill the pen, by which such things are told. 

A Learned master of the languages, 

Which to Rich Stores of Learning are the Keyes; 

He taught us first Good Sense to understand 

And put the Golden Keyes into our hand. 

Were Grammar quite extinct, yet at his Brain 

The Candle might have well been lit again, 

If Rhetrick had been stript of all her Pride 

She of his Wardrobe might have been Supplied. 

Do but Name Cheever and the Echo straight 

Upon that Name, Good Latin will Repeat." 



APPENDIX. 117 

He left New Haven under the cloud of a difficulty 
with the church, the account of which is an interest- 
ing picture of the course of a church censure in 
1649. 

There were charges against him of "offensive 
carriage" in church and of refusal to vote when 
action was taken to clear the Church Elders of the 
censure of partiality. 

His "offensive gestures" seem to have been the 
wrapping of his handkerchief around his head — 
which he claimed was due to a headache — and 
"smiling or laughing" aggravated his offense, but 
he failed to give any "satisfying reason why he 
could not clear the Elders of usurpation," although 
he said it was because "the brethren had not due 
liberty to act according to the light of their own 
consciences" and "being loth to disturb the peace 
of the Church, he held up his hand to neither vote." 
After long debate the church proceeded to censure 
him and cast him out. "Witnessing against his 
contradicting stiff and proud frame of spirits," in 
the hope that he be brought into a more "member- 
like frame." 

It was small wonder that he was glad to avail 
himself of the kindly offices of a man who was dis- 
tinguished by success in the office of peacemaker. 

Reverend & Worthy S"" 
I understand by M" Wakemans letter that y" are now 
in y* Bay, which gives me opportunity of presenting a few 



II 8 PETER PRUDDEN. 

lines to you, to acquaint y" with y® grounds of my wright- 
ing to y^ Church as I did, & my private letter to M"" 
Atwater, of which last M"" Davenport, or y® Elders joyntly 
have wrote to y^ R. M"" Rogers, & jVP Norton here, that 
it is distasted by y* plantations about them. M"" Higginson 
hath beene here since, who sayes no such thing. I am 
represented, & interpreted at N. Haven to deal guilefully, 
& to speake one thing in my writing to y'^ Ch: another 
in my private letter. For my letter to y* Church it was 
drawne by y® advice & approbation of y® R. M"" Rogers, & 
M'' Norton, to whom I have constantly opened my mind 
fully, that I could not justify y® Ch; censure, & being 
jealous of what came to passe, I expressed to them my 
feare of using any expressions that might give them occa- 
sion so to thinke, & they apprehended with myself, both 
then, & do so still, y* there is no expression in my letter 
that doth in a true Grammaticall or Logicall construction 
hold forth any justification of y'' Ch: censure. And indeede 
they & my selfe did apprehend ye** Ch: would require it of 
me, from an expression in a letter from y* Ch: subscribed 
by M"" Hooke, & M"" Newman, thus [for this cause y® 
brethren judge it necessary, that either he justify y* ch: 
censure, or at least judge himselfe for condemning it] this 
last I choose, & could willingly doe, & being willing to 
aggravate it as much as I could, & to carry it in a peace- 
able way, I said thus, I acknowledge my sin in unjust, dis- 
orderly condemning y* censure ; w'^'' I conceive is true, it 
was unjust for me in y* way & manner as I did before legall 
conviction to censure y® Church: The Elders here have 
wrote to free me from any guile, & Mr. Higginson told 
me, they told him, they must take it upon themselves. 
Now for my wrighting to M"" Atwater, y* I did not justify 
y" censure, & giving him liberty to declare it if need were; 
it was upon this ground. I had intimation from a friend it 
was much looked at, y* I should justify y* Ch: censure, & 



APPENDIX. 119 

reported as if I must, or did, so I feared, they might take 
occasion, if any could be found from my writing, to appre- 
hend I justified y® Ch: censure . . . y* then they would 

presse hard upon some, whose consciences 

. . . . not justify it: therefore y' y® truth might not 
suffer, & I be abused as an instrument in it, nor any friend 
of mine unjustly for my sake, I was willing to beare the 
burden of it my selfe, & y* y* truth might be understood: 
You will say, why did I not write plainly to y* Ch: ? I 
answer, for peace sake. I knew it would not be borne. 
I did not certainly know, y® thing would come in question, 
but would be let fall on both sides for peace sake, & had I 
then openly expressed my selfe, it would have beene taken 
for an open opposition of them, & needlesse striving con- 
tention For because I did but use this expression in my 
confession prepared for y^ Church, & sent to M"" Davenport 
in y* Bay for his advice, [I am sorry there should remaine 
any diflference betweene y* Ch: & my selfe, but am willing 
to hearken to any meanes of conviction] &c. M'" Daven- 
port much distasted it, saying Cui bono is such an expres- 
sion, & that a man coming to hold forth repentance to y* 
Church should make an open profession of difference, was 
not to be borne, & y' y® Ch: would impute it to my pride 
&c. Had I now done so, he might justly have replied, w* 
needed mentioning this, but for contention, did not y* 
Church open a doore & a faire way for you, in their former 
expression, not requiring any such thing at your hand. My 
aimes & ends were good to attaine y' which is obtained by 
it, & I do not yet see y* I have broke any rule in it; if your 
selfe judge otherwise, I shall thankfully receive any light 
from you. Had I not written to M'' Atwater, y* truth had 
suffered, & I had beene delivered but upon such termes as 
I never did desire it, & therefore laid in to prevent it, 
though I conceive I gave no just occasion to y® Ch: so to 
thinke, & had beene blamelesse in y* particular. I entreat 



I20 PETER PRUDDEN. 

y° to conceale my wrighting to y", & repose in you for it, 
knowing it will be offensive, yet withall to put forth a 
helping hand for my deliverance if it lye in your power; for 
I know not what to doe more to y*' Ch: & I thinke few or 
none will advise me to do what they require of me. I pray 
enforme my friends at N. H. how it stands, for I perceive 
they are not desirous of any letters from me, & therefore I 
do forbeare, only entreating y" to deliver this enclosed to 
M""' Wakeman about my child. 

Thus beseeching your prayers, I am 

An afflicted outcast 
Ipswitch s: 16:51. E. Cheever. 

(Address.) 

To the Reverend his much 

esteemed friend M"" Peter 

Prudden Pastour of 

y® Church of Christ 

at Milford these 

Present. 

XIV. 
THE LANE FAMILY PAPERS. 

In his preface to the small volume of Lane 
family papers, published in 1857, Mr. W. H. Whit- 
more says : ''We find that Rev. John Reyner, Rev. 
Peter Prudden^ Mr. Simonds and Mr. Robinson 
married four coheiresses, whose property lay in 
Edgton and Welburn." ''The property remained 
with the Lanes until 1796, a case I believe, without 
parallel in New England." 

As Anna, the daughter of Rev. Mr. Raynor, mar- 
ried Job Lane, some extracts from the Lane papers 



APPENDIX, 121 

are of interest to the Prudden family, as they refer 
to the same English property which the Pruddens 
held for one hundred and fifty years. 

Under the date of 1660 we find the son of John 
Reyner signing a receipt to Job Lane for £55 for 
"one-fourth part of a certain parcel of land lying 
in Yorkshire in England, which in the whole be- 
longs to the said Mr. Reyner, Mr. Robinson, Mr. 
Pryden and one Symonds;" .... "the said 
land lyes in Edgston in Yorkshire, now in occupa- 
tion of Thomas Boyse." 

In other papers, the "housing and lands" are 
spoken of as "lying within the townships of Edgton 
and Welburn^ now in the possession of Matthew 
Boyse of Edgton." A foot note explains that 
"Edstone and Welburn are near Kirkby Moorside, 
in the East Riding of York, about forty miles north- 
east of Leeds." 

Another paper which mentions the names of the 
other owners of the property gives them as "Mr. 
Robinson, Mr. Prudden^ and one Symonds." 

A letter from John Dickinson at Gildersome in 
1670, to his "Cozen Laine" speaks of Mr. Samuel 
Boys as receiving rent and sending it through a 
Mr. Harwood in London, who failed to forward it. 

"Your mother Reyner and Mrs. Prudent, I fear, loseth 
most of iioo by him; if he was able to pay he would; 
they must have patience until God enable him. With suit 
they cannot get because its not to be had. His wife died 



122 PETER PRUDDEN. 

12 months since; it may be, he may light of some rich 
widow, that may make him capable to pay; except God 
some way raise him, he cannot pay you or any else. To 
trouble him with suit, it will bring nothing into your 
pocket, but loss to yourself and trouble to him ; so pray 
acquaint your aunt Reyner (I mean your mother-in-law 
Reyner) and Airs. Prudent. He owes me money, that I 
expect not a penny (of), except God some way aid him; 
besides I am bound with him for money I must pay myself, 
I remembered you to John Robinson, and acquainted him 
you would sell that land that's beyond York, that came 
by Mr. Reyner's first wife ; he having one part of it, it 
would be fit for him ; but he is not fit for buying, but 
saith it was never divided, and that will much hinder your 
sales. If Mrs. Prudent, you, and John Robinson, and the 
other that's the fourth, could all agree to sell, it would 
sell best; but no division being served on it, it may fall 
on longest lives. Robinson stood upon that; but if you 
can find a way to sell and make good assurance, and join 
Mrs. Prudent with you, it's like I might find you a 
chapman. I do not know it, but I perceive there's mean 
housing on't, and tenants fail on't as they do in many 
places; also land is much cheaper now than it hath been; 
it would have given more by i30 at iioo, ten years since 
than now. Trading is bad ; it's stolen out of England 
into Ireland, Germany and Holland, that mightily impover- 
isheth England. Besides there hath been great teynts and 
taxing in this land, that hath disabled tenants in too much 
money." ... I perceive the rent is about iio a year, 
but teints and charges take of, that it's bout clear, a little 
above £9 a year; and that hath not been paid, it's a loss 
to you and a shame to them that should have made you 
a better account and return. When you write you need 
but direct to John Dickinson at Gildersome near Leeds, 
and to be left with Mr. Timothy Cloudsby at the new 



APPENDIX. 123 

postman near Cripplegate in London, and it will come to 
me. If it comes to Mr. Cloudsby at London, it will come 
to me; I deal in oil and dye-stuffs, (and) I have them 
from London." . . . 

"John Dickinson's letter, says he can do nothing about 
dividing the land, as Mr. Symonds' children are so young. 
Mentions aunt Willett." 

GiLDERSOME^ yc ist April, 1679. 
Coz. Job Layne, 

. . . Your Uncle Boyes was slain in the war at a 
fight between the Lord Fairfax and the King's forces 
called Seacroft Fight, or Club Fight. It was called so 
because many of the countrymen went with the Lord Fair- 
fax with clubs, and no other weapons. (The) Parliament- 
party your uncle was in, and they was put to the run, 
and he slain, between Seacroft and Leeds, within 2 miles 
of Leeds, in April, 1643, now 36 years since. . . . 

One letter is dated London, May ist, 1679, from John 
Dickinson, jr., — "My father now writes to Mrs. Reyner 
and Mrs. Willett under cover to Mr. Joseph Walker of 
Boston." 

July 21, 1765. John Dickinson's letter shows the rent 
of the 4th share of an estate at Edstone in Yorkshire, 
occupied by John Fisher, to be £20 for 2 years, less collect- 
ing, I— 19. 

Sept. 9, 1783. From same. We have never received a 
line from Mr. John Dickinson of Beverly, or any remit- 
tances from him on account of your estate in Yorkshire, 
since the beginning of this unhappy war. 

Sept. 12, 1790. I. Garbett, Phila., offers to buy the 
estate. 

March 9, 1791. From same: offers £400 stg. for the 
estate. 



124 PETER PRUDDEN. 

26, 3 mo., 1792. Joseph Dickinson writes from Beverly 
to Lane, Son & Fraser, that Charles Fisher, the tenant 
at Edstone, informs him of the burning of his house and 
barns. 

XV. 

PRUDDEN PAPERS 

Relating to the English Property from 1758-1815. 

Letter addressed to Mr. John Dickinson at Gilder- 
some near Adwalton by Ferry Bridge in Yorkshire, 
by way of London. 

MiLFORD, Oct. nth, 1758. 
Mr. John Dickinson : 

In June 1755 I had occasion to Go to my cozen Mr. 
Prudden, who Liveth in Mores Town in New Jersey where 
I Saw your Letter directed to Mr. Joseph and Samuell 
Prudden, if Living, if not to Let you know who were by 
right owners to ye one half of ye 4th part of an Estate 
that you have ye Care of Collecting, ye rents of and order- 
ing ye. money by orders &c at Edstone in Yorkshire in Old 
England at 50 £ ann. These may serve to let you know that 
my kins man Joseph Prudden is now living for ought 
that I know, and I the Subscriber hereunto Samuell 
Prudden, am heir to that part of the above Estate given 
by Mrs. Joanna Prudden of Milford, Decs'd. ye, will 
bearing date Nov. 8th, 1861 by which her Estate was dis- 
posed of. Note my Grandfather Samuel Prudden was ye 
oldest brother, that ye Estate was given to; and my 
father by his Last will gave ye above (that is his part of 
the estate) to me, I being his oldest Son and I have now 
Living two Sons and one Daughter which I hope will have 
the Estate after me, my oldest son's name is Samuel. 

Invoice of Goods Dated London August 1743 came 



APPENDIX. 125 

marked I -}- P &c and Invoice dated London Aug. 4th, 
1750 amounting to 66£-6s-3d and charges in all amounting 
to 68i-i9-5 as per Copy Sent to me Marked I } P which 
mark makes it appear that in Giving you your orders ; they 
that is, my kinsman and M. Uzal Ogden to whom the 
Goods Comes Directed doth not let you know of me which 
I Dislike if it be so; Now Mr. Joseph Prudden Liveth 
about one hundred and fifty miles from me which makes 
it unhandy for me to get my Goods and must take them 
at their dividing Let it be as it will . . . S. the Last 
Goods that I rec'd was in Aug. loth 1755 which Came 
Safe to hand; I have had thoughts of giving Mr. Uzal 
Ogden orders in Company with my kinsman to have him 
Send for what is due Since Aug. loth 1755, but as they 
Live at a Great Distance from me and I Live about 60 
miles from New York. I would have you Lay out my 
part, that is five pounds per year in Dutch goods as I 
shall give orders for from time to time and pack them 
up by themselves and Direct them for me or my orders; 
as per orders from me; from time to time; my kinsman 
hath not Sent as I Supoze, for I have M. Uzal Ogden 
Letter Dated Newark Sept. 12th 1758 and which Gives me 
to understand that he waits for my orders to Send ; but as 
I have Said ; I would have you send what is due to me 
as I shall order you. Please to send me one Neest of Brass 
kettles Sised from- one Gallon to twenty-two Gallons, 6 
Copper Tea kettels, three quart or better each. 

Ye remainder of money if any please to Lay out in an 
Assortment of Pewter viz. in plates, porengers Quart poots, 
tankerds, pint pots, and platters and Bassons. Let the 
platters fail if any; but the whole is left to your discretion 
to do the best you Can for me in Laying ye money out 
in the above to ye best Advantage and if you Can send 
them to New York to the care of Mr. Gerard G. Beekman, 



126 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Mech't. there to be forwarded to me in Milford in the 
County of Newhaven and Colony of Connecticut, New 
England, if these Come to your hand and you Cannot Send 
them directly and have any opportunity of writing to me 
please to write and let me know when to Expect the Goods 
above Said; these with Love and Respect from 

Yr Kinsman, Samuel Prudden. 

Shipped by the Grace of God, in good Order and Condi- 
tion, by Thomas Cornell in and upon the good Ship call'd 
the Edward whereof is Master under God, for this present 
Voyage William Davis, and now riding at Anchor in the 
River Thames and by God's Grace bound for New York, 
to say, 

One Cask of Merchandise 

_ being mark'd and number'd as in the Margin, and are to 

^ ^ be deliver'd in the like good Order and Condition, at the 

2' ^ aforesaid Port of New York (the Danger of the Seas only 
excepted) unto Gerald G. Beekman, Merch't. there or to 
his assigns, paying Freight for the said Goods ten shillings 
Current money of New York. 

In Witness whereof the Master or Purser of the said 
Ship hath affirm'd to two Bills of Lading, all of this Tenor 
and Date; the one of which two Bills being accomplished, 
the other Bill to stand void. And so God send the good 
Ship to her desired Port in Safety. Amen. Dated in 
London June 29th, 1761. 
Contents unknown, to W. J. Davis. 

Beverley^ 14th of June 1763. 
Loving Cousin 
Sam'l. Prudden. 

I have thy Favour dated 19th of Jan'y, 1763 and am 
glad to hear that the Goods sent in June 1761 was got 
safe to hand. I have rec'd five pounds of the Prents due 



No. 3 
a 



APPENDIX. 127 

to thee and expect to receive five pounds more about the 
forend of next Month and when thou pleases to send Direc- 
tions how or in what Goods thou would please to have yr. 
Money return'd shall take care to observe them. I am very 
glad to hear of the Wellfare of thy Family and thro' Mercy 
have my health pritty well at present considering my years 
but in some Measure find in myself not that ability for 
Business as in my Younger Years which indeed by the 
Course of Nature one can't expect. I have a Nephew here 
with me of my own Nam.e who writes this but no Children 
and my youngest Brother Wm. Dickinson is now in 
America at Philadelphia and hath been for some time there 
with one Preese Merridyths and hath at times of late talk'd 
of coming over into this Country again sometime this year 
and also talk'd of taking a journey to Boston before his 
coming therefore desired in case that should happen to 
endeavour to pay thee and thy Cousin Joseph a visit and 
some others I have receiv'd Rents for in this Country 
which I hope he will also (if opportunity offer) endeavour 
to do. I am with kind Love and Respects to Myself and 

Family, 

Thy Loving Kinsman, 

John Dickinson. 



128 PETER PRUDDEN. 

INVOICE of sundry Goods or Merchandise Shipt on 
board the Ship Polly, Thomas Williamson Master, bound 
for Philadelphia, on the proper Account and Risque of 
Samuel Prudden of Milford in Connecticut and consigned 
to Van Home and Lott, Merchants in New York marked 
and numbered as in the Margin (viz) 

£ s D 
§ p A Case 

No. I 10-1/2 yards 3/4 Scarlet unpress'd Cloth, at 9 p y. 8 6 

27 Yards dark Blue Plain at 4/1 do 5 10 3 

I Piece of Black Durant, i n 

26 Yards of brown shattoon, at 13 p y i 8 2 

36 do double Weft & Warp green Camblet, at 

17 do 2 II 

27-1/2 do purple Callico, fast Colour, at 2/1-1/2 2 10 5 

I Dozen black Barcelona Handkerchiefts 211 

9 Bordered Muslin ditto, at 3/10 p i 14 6 

3 Ditto, at 3/6 P 10 6 

22-1/2 Eus 3/4 black, at 2/4 p Eu 2 12 6 

I Doz. of Black Worsted Mitts 9 

1 Doz. of Black Silk do i 10 

2 Pieces of Yd. wide Irish pty 50 yards, at 10 p 3 15 

2 Pieces of do 49 yards, at 2/ 4 18 

I Piece of Superfine Chintz, 28 do, at 3/6 4 18 

I Doz. of Light spotted Handkerchiefs, at 2/2-1/2 166 

9-3/4 Yards Clear Lawn, at 3/8 i 15 10 

3 Doz. 4 8 Calkings, at 8/ i 4 

12 Bibles, 24 mo., at 2/3 i 7 

3 Doz, of Cuttoe Knives, at 4/ i 12 

Brought over 71/13/4/ 

July 13, Paid Carriage to Hull 6/ 4/ 

Horse Hire & Expenses to Hull 2/ 6/ 



APPENDIX. 129 

Beverly, 7th mo. 20th, 1765. 
Respected Friend: — 

I was favoured with thy Letter of the 29 of April, 

1764, since which time I have been under difficulties to 

find out a good and safe conveyance for the Goods now 

shipt on board the Polly, Thomas Williamson Master from 

the Port of Hull to that of Philadelphia consigned to Van 

Hone and Lott in New York. I have desired the Master, 

and he has engaged to ship them on board a Coaster in 

the Deleware for New York without the expense of landing 

them at Philadelphia, this Ship was advertised for the last 

mentioned Place but the 2-1/2 P cent upon all English 

Bottom's taking goods for New York altered the Plan and 

they therefore proceed to Philadelphia. I wish them safe 

and acceptable all the Articles required in said Letter are 

now sent, save the Corn Machines and the Nutmegs, now 

very dear. ... I have been in by death's door and a 

variety of concerns falling to my share on that Acc't. as 

well as a long corporeal indisposition, the experience of 

this and that last year for so long a delay which I am 

sorry for — 

John Dickinson. 

Beverley, August 31, 1766. 
Loving Cousin, 

Samuel Prudden. 

I had thy Favour of the 14th June last, and as to 
the Trust mentioned, as I grow into years thought it better 
to have some other acquainted with the Affair, and had 
none when I writ last, but my Nephew that I thought so 
proper to transact that Affair; but since that time my 
Brother who hath resided many years in Philadelphia is 
returned into this state and county, and in case of my 
decease, one or other of them will take care to look after 
that Estate. 
9 



I30 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Samuel Prudden's Account with John Dickinson, Dr. 
1761. 
June 30. To Ballance due to me per Acc't, of 

this date sent him, i 19 9 

1766. 
Aug. 6. To my Salary for receiving and paying 
the Dontra Rents amounting to 

i25— at 5 P- C I 5 

23. To Cost of Goods ship't by Harford 
and Powell per my Order on his 
Acc't. in the New York, Effing, 

Lawrence, Mr 37 7 lO 

To Postage of Letters 3 4 

^39-15-11 

1761. 
Dec. By return of Premium on Goods, 

insured P. the Edward, Cap't. Davis £ 15 
1763. 
June By two year's rent of 1/8 share of an 
Estate at Edston, due at Candlemas 
1763 10 

1765. 
June By two years ditto due at ditto, 1765. . . 10 

1766. 
June 23. By one year's ditto due at ditto, 1766. . 5 
Aug. 23. By Ballance due to J. Dickinson 14 11 

£39 15 II 
Beverley Septem'r. 13, 1766. 
Errors Excepted. 
(Being a Copy of the Acc't. sign'd for me in London 
23d Aug. last by Harford & Powell,) 

John Dickinson. 



APPENDIX. 131 

Beverly, September 19th, 1767. 
Esteemed Friend & Kinsman. 

Samuel Prudden : — 

I have thy Favors of the 4th July last, and am glad 
to hear the Goods ship't for thy use got safe to hand. 
As I received a Discount on the said goods after thy 
Account was sent, have therefore underneath drawn out 
the Account as it now stands betwixt us. Being advanced 
in years and the State of my Health precarious, think it 
would not be improper, that thy Affairs were put into 
some other hand, therefore, if it be agreeable to thee to 
entrust my Bro'r. Will'm. with the care of them who is 
now with me at Beverly, I believe he will take all proper 
care in a faithful Transaction of them. 

Thy Relation Joseph Prudden of Newark in the Jersey 
Sent an order on me dated 2 December last 1766 for the 
Ballance due to him in my hands, payable to Joseph Miro 
Merch't. in London, to . . . the same, and I have only 
one years Rent of his in my hands due at Midsummer last. 

I am glad to hear of thy Health and that of thy 
Family and am with my best Respects and wishes for 
your welfare. 

Thy sincere Friend and Obliged Kinsman, 

John Dickinson. 

Dr. Samuel Prudden's Acc't. with John Dickinson, Cr. 
1766. 

Sept. 13, To Ballance of Acc't. sent £14 11 

i8th. By a discount on Goods ship'd by 
Harford & Powell, in the New 

York Capt. Lawrence i 15-2 

1767. 
June 25th. By cash received for one year's Rent 
of thy 1/8 share of the Estate at 
Edston and at Candlemas last 1767 5. 
Ballance due to Mr. Dickinson 7.5 9. 



ii4 II. 

Errors excepted Sept. 19th, 1767. 



132 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Evidently the first draft of a letter which was 
copied and sent. 

Connecticut, New England, 

January 6th, 1772. 
Esteemed Friend & Kinsman. 

John Dickerson : — 

I have thy favor of the 19th September 1767 and am 
glad to hear of your Life and health and that God in his 
providence is continuing your Life so long in the world, 
may it be for your good & yours is desire of your Sincere 
friend Sam'l. Prudden. I take this opportunity to tell you 
that I and mine are in health and Comfortable circum- 
stances and that my only Daughter Sarah Prudden is 
married and to the Likeing of all friends as to what you 
have written me concerning your resigning the care of my 
interest. I must and do entirely leave it with you trusting 
that you will do that which you think will be best for me 
only beg you would let me know who the person is that 
you commit it to that I may not be at uncertainty who I 

am to look to for the future. 

Sam'l, Prudden. 

Kindsman as there is now something due. I take this 
opportunity to let you know that I should be glad you 
would send me 

24 m ten penny brass nails 
20 m 4 penny ditto at 3. 3/4 
3 half Boxes of Crown glass 6 by 8. 

and let them come consigned to G. Beekman in New York. 

No more at present from your Sincere friend and humble 

servant, 

Sam'l. Prudden. 



APPENDIX. 133 

Esteemed Friend & Kinsman : — 

My Uncle had thy favour of the 6th of January last 
on the 13th of March following enjoins me to make the 
acknowledgment; he is pleased to hear of the welfare of 
thee and thine and wishes you a long continuance in the 
like salutary enjoyment. 

Consonant to thy imparted order — I have this day shipt 
on board the Beaver the Goods as P invoice herewith fur- 
nished consigned to Gerard Geo. Beekman, New York 
under cover to whom this goes. I wish them safe to hand, 
and satisfactory, the certainty of which will be grateful, 
and when I have any future orders, be pleased to be as 
particular as may be with regard to the kinds of goods 
wanted, have been under some difficulty in the procurement 
of these now sent. 

I am on Uncle's behalf as well as on my own acc't. 

Thy Sincere and Respectful Kinsman, 

John Dickinson^ Junior. 
Beverly 7th mo. 7th. i'772. 

Shipped by the grace of God in good order and well 
conditioned by John Dickinson in and upon the good Ship 
called the Polly whereof is Master under God for this 
present Voyage, Thomas Williamson now laying in Hull 
Dock and by God's grace bound for Philadelphia to say 
two Cases and two Corn Machines, being marked and 
numbered as in the margin, and are to be delivered in the 
like good order and well conditioned, at the aforesaid 
Port of Philadelphia (New York) 

(the danger of the seas only excepted) unto Messrs. Van 
Home and Lott, Mrchts. on or to their assigns, they pay- 
ing freight for the said Goods one shilling and three 
half pence per foot sterling with 5 p. Cent primage payable 
to the Course of Exchange on London and average accus- 
tom. In witness whereof the Master or Purser of the 
said Ship hath affirmed to three bills of loading all of this 



134 PETER PRUDDEN. 

tenor and date, the one of which three bills being accom- 
plished, the other two to stand void ; And so God send the 
good Ship to her desired Port in safety. 

Dated in Hull, the 14th day of July 1785. 
Contents unknown. Thos. Williamson. 

Street in Gildersome, July 7th, 1789. 
Respected Friend 

Samuel Prudden. 

On the 17th of September, 1787 I wrote to Job & 
John Lane of Beverley near Boston New England acquaint- 
ing them that an Inclosure of Edston Common was then 
in hand, and sent them a sketch of your Estate there, also 
the number of acres it contains, being sixty three Acres 
one Rood and twenty-six perches, with what charges had 
then accrued respecting the Inclosure, but could not ascer- 
tain what the whole charge would be for your Estate but 
that is now fully settled which amounts to £35.. 3. 3, one 
fourth of which thy account is charged with, being 
£8.15.9-3/4. The Estate or Farm is now let at Forty 
pounds clear yearly Rent to Charles Fisher the old Tenant, 
which commenced at Lady day 1788. Hope what I have 
done herein will be satisfactory to all the owners, as your 
yearly income will be double what it has been ; believe 
it is an equitable Rent, thy Tenant paying all assessments, 
and Taxes, and is to keep the Buildings in repair. Not- 
withstand it is now near two years since I wrote to Job 
and John Lane, I have not yet been favoured with an 
answer. I desired they would communicate what I wrote 
to them to thee and Silas Condict of Morris-town in near 
Jersey Esq., Guardian to Joseph Prudden Junior — My 
Nephew John Dickinson who sent thee the last goods is 
dead, and as he left me his Executor and Guardian to his 
son, it seemed to become my place to take care of your 
Affairs after his decease, but as I am far advanced in 



APPENDIX. 135 

years wish as soon as it can be done to be discharged 
therefrom; and I recommended to Job and John Lane my 
Nephew Joseph Dickinson of Beverley Parks near Beverley 
Yorkshire, who is capable of serving you and I hope he 
will do it to your satisfaction. I think it would be neces- 
sary for you to give him a proper power to act for you, 
but as you live at so great a distance one from another it 
may be some trouble to get it done; yet whoever acts for 
you, he should have something to show that he acts by your 
approbation, which would give him more power over the 
Tenant in case he should not use the Farm according to 
good Husbandry. I am with due respect. 

Thy assured Friend, 

William Dickinson. 

ART 

The old Inclosure 50 2 10 

New Allotment on the Common. . 3 3 10 



83 I 26 
Direct to 

William Dickinson. 

Street in Gildersome 

near Leeds, Yorkshire. 

Wrote Willm. Dickinson & 
Joseph & Joseph Dickinson yr., 

i6th October, 1789. 

Philadelphia Oct 4 1790 
Sir, ^ 

I wrote you word some time ago of property which 
I supposed you were Intitled to in Yorkshire in Old Eng- 
land which am douteful that you never received. As I 
never received an answer if you are in mind to dispose 
of it I would be your Chape as I have partly agreed with 
some of your partners and Can Make you an advantageous 



13^ PETER PRUDDEN. 

Bargain in that Afare. which I would be glad to hear from 
you and let me have the Sentiments of your mind on the 
value you set on it which I should be glad to be your 
Chape for it and you may have land or Money here for it 
to a great advantage. So Sir your Hble Servt. 

I. Gar butt 

Please to direct to me at Philadelphia 
to the care of John Ingle 
Store keeper on Front St. 

Beverley, Park, 20th of 8th Month, 1801. 
Esteemed Friend, 
Sam'l Prudden. 
I received thy Letter dated the 14th of April last 
in due course and agreeable to thy Order have ship't on 
board the Sally Capt. Will'm. Gallop for New York the 
goods as by Invoice to the amount of the money in my 
Hands which are consigned to James De Witt agreeable to 
thy request. 

Below is the state of my Acc't. which I hope will be 
found right. There are some extra charges on Acc't. of 
my extraordinary trouble in going over to Kirbymoorside 
and taking an Attorney with me, when the Estate was 
sold, in order to prevent Garbutt the purchaser for getting 
an unfair advantage of the Owners, which I was apprehen- 
sive he wished to do, and which are entered in thy Acc't. 
because I had not any Money in my hands of any of the 
other owners, and which I think ought to be paid by the 
several Owners in proportion to their several Interests in 
the Estate. The sums alluded to are ^4-19.6 and £2.15-2-1/4 
makes together the sum of £14-8-1/4, which I trust the 
other Owners will have no objection to allow. Shall be 
glad to hear of the safe Arrival of this and the goods sent 
herewith and that they are to satisfaction and remain with 
much respect. Thy Obliged Friend, 

Joseph Dickinson. 



APPENDIX, 137 

Sam'l. Prudden of Milford, in 

Connection with New England in Acc't. with Joseph 
Dickinson, Dr. 
1799. To ballance due as by last Acct. 12 £ 18 s. 9-3/4 d. 
May To Cash pd. Sam'l. Hall for 
going to Kirbymoorside as 

P. Bill I" 19" 6 

To his and my expenses this 

journey being out 3 days.. 3" 15" 2-1/4" 
To my Comm'n. on 60 £ for 
receiving and paying the 

Rents 3 " 

To postage 4 " i 

To Cash pd. for Sundry goods, 

as p. Invoice to Ballance... 36" 2" 5 

i6o — — 



Invoice of sundrys ship't. in the Sally, Cap't. 

William Gallop for New York on Account and Risk of 

Samuel Prudden of Milford in Connecticutt by order of 

Joseph Dickinson of Beverley Park and goes Consigned to 

James DeWitt at New York. 

£ s. D. 

3 pieces of 7/8 Irish, 17 — 77 — 18, 5 15 6 

3 " " " " 14 — 74 — 21 6 96 

II — 80 — 2/5 8 00 



3 
3 
I 
I 



8 — 78 — 2/3 8 15 6 

9 — 26 — 2/6 350 

10 — 25 — 2/5 3 5 

Carriage from Leeds to Hull o 56 

Shipping and o 2 3 

6 yds. Inside Wrapper 5 3 

Outside & Cord o i 6 

Box o 3 o 



P. Gilbert. £36 — 2 — 5 

D. J. Lyon, 



138 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Beverley Park, 19th of 9th Mo. 1802. 
Esteemed Friend, 
Sam'l. Prudden. 

I rec'd thy Letter dated 26. Dec. 1801 in answer to 
which must inform thee that I remitted all the Rents I 
received namely up to Lady 1797, Josh. Garbutt the pur- 
chaser of the Estate said he was intitled by his agreement 
to all the Rents from that time but I objected for some 
time to his having them due at Lady 98 and wod not 
give him possession of the Estate upon which he wrote 
to Isaac Prudden and I had a Letter from him and Tum 
Prudden requesting I would give upon possession of the 
Estate to Garbutt as they were likely to be sufferers by 
my not doing it. Garbutt threatened to sue me if I did not 
pay him one year Rent, I had in my hand belonging to 
Isaac Prudden due Lady day '97 therefore was under the 
necessity of paying him upon Garbutt engaging to return 
it if it was not his due, and as I have heard nothing to the 
contrary suppose it was his due. I am sorry there should 
be any misunderstanding at the winding up of this business 
but can assure thee I have kept nothing back. I am very 

respectfully 

Thy Sincere Friend, 

Joseph Dickinson. 

Invoice of Sundries shipt in the Beaver Pierre de Poystre 
Master for New York, on Account & Risk of Samuel 
Prudden by order of John Dickinson of Beverly and goes 
consigned to Gerard Geo. Beekman of New York, viz. 

Three Boxes of Crown Glass containing 

£ s D 

300 ft. at 4 P. 5 
Boxes 20 d cash, 5 55 



APPENDIX, 139 



Two Bags of Nails containing together 

;^ s D 

20 m 4 d. 5 & 4-1/2 2 10 

20 m 10 d. 14 4 15 

2 bags 2 



12 12 



Be it known that I Samuel Prudden of Milford in the 
County of New Haven and State of Connecticut, Yeoman, 
have for and in Consideration of the agreement hereinafter 
made and do hereby covenant and agree to and with Isaac 
Prudden of Morristown in the State of New Jersey, Yeo- 
man, that I will, Release, Quit Claim, and Convey without 
any Covenants of Warranty — All my right, Title, Interest, 
Estate, Claim and Demand into and out of a certain Fourth 
part of a Farm and Estate lying and being in Edstone 
and Southfield in the County of York and Kingdom of 
Great Britain, Containing about Sicty-three acres more or 
less as soon as and whensoever the s'd. Isaac Prudden shall 
fulfill his agreement below made. 

And the S'd Isaac Prudden doth hereby Covenant and 
Agree to and with the S'd. Samuel Prudden that on the 
first Day of May next he will pay or cause to be paid to 
the s'd. Samuel Prudden or his Assigns, Three Hundred 
and Twenty Five Pounds, Sterling money of Great Britain, 
& also the sum of Forty-seven Pounds One Shilling & 2d 
like money it being the sum due sd. Samuel Prudden on 
last Candlemas for Rent in Arrears. On Receipt of the 
Deed aforementioned and that the Sd. Samuel shall have 
& Receive the proceeds and profits of Sd. Farms untill the 
s'd Deed shall be given as aforesaid. 

In Witness whereof the Sd. Parties have hereunto set 
their hands and seals this Fifth Day of July 1797. 
Signed & Sealed & 

Delivered in Presence of Isaac Prudden 

Ab'm. W. H. DeWitt. Samuel Prudden. 



140 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Samuel Priidden seems not to have sold his part 
of the English property until several years after 
the first request made him by Garbutt, for we have 
another letter from the purchaser dated in 1795, 
saying that in the meantime the "housin" had been 
burned and asking him if he would accept 200 lbs. 
for his share. The last of the Dickinson letters in 
1 80 1 shows that the new owner took possession in 
1798, but either because the purchaser was shifty 
or because the death of Isaac Prudden in New 
Jersey about this time prevented a righteous divi- 
sion of the land that was taken in payment, neither 
Samuel Prudden or his heirs ever received any 
return for this sale. The matter remained in liti- 
gation for some years. A letter from a lawyer in 
Morristown dated 1814, hints at a possibility of 
compromise ''between the various claimants of the 
Garbutt tracks on Scroobey mountain" and men- 
tions that Samuel Prudden's claim is for $1,778.07 
with interest from December, 1804. In May of 
that same year Samuel Prudden gave his son Peter 
power of attorney to go to Morristown and act for 
him in settling the matter, but he accomplished 
nothing, and reported the matter as not likely to be 
settled. The letter from the lawyers relating to it is 
dated in 181 5, and reports the case as continued till 
the next ''circuit" because the plaintiffs were not 
ready. The claim at this time seems to have been 
against the estate of Isaac Prudden. 



APPENDIX, 141 

XVI. 

Samuel Prudden's' Will^ 1742. 

In ye name of Our Lord God Everlasting Amen, October 
ye i2th, Anna Dom. one thousand seven hundred and forty 
tv/o, I Samuel Prudden of ye town of Milford in ye County 
of New Haven in his Majesties colony of Connecticut in 
New England, being under weakness of body, and in daily 
expectation of my great change, But Blessed be God I am 
of sound mind and memory do make and ordain this my 
last Will and Testament as in ye manner following; viz.) 
As for my worldly estate which God hath been pleased to 
Bestow upon me, I give, Bequeath and dispose of in ye 
following way and manner. 

My Will is yt all my just debts which I owe to any 
person and my funeral charges be first paid out of my 
estate by my executors hereafter in this may last will nomi- 
nated and appointed by me. 

Item. I Give, Bequeath and Dispose unto my dear and 
loving wife, Hannah Prudden and to her heirs for her and 
their proper use, benefit and improvement forever, the one- 
third part of all my personal and moveable estate what- 
soever ; and for her use and improvement during her life 
one third part of all my housing and lands in the Town- 
ship of Milford. 

Item. I Give, Bequeath, and Dispose unto my oldest 
Son Samuel Prudden and to his heirs and assigns forever, 
all my estate, right and Inheritance whatsoever, that, I 
now have in Housing and Lands situate and being in York- 
shire in Old England commonly called by ye name of 
Edgton Kerbie Moorside and Southfield. 

Item. I give and bequeath unto my daughter Hannah 
Piatt and to her heirs and assigns forever ye sum of Two 
Hundred and Twenty pounds, to be esteemed and accounted 



142 PETER PRUDDEN. 

according to ye old Tenner Bills of ye colony aforesaid, 
and one Silver Spoon, always accounting and Reckoning 
what she has always had given her by me before my death 
as a part of ye summ of Two hundred and Twenty pounds, 
to be paid to her or her heirs by my executors out of my 
estate. 

Item. — I give, Bequeath and Dispose unto my daughter 
Sarah Camp and to her heirs and assigns forever, ye Sum 
of Two Hundred and Twenty lbs. to be accounted, Reck- 
oned and esteemed according to ye former Tenner Bills of 
Publick Credit, of ye Colony afores'd, and one Silver 
Spoon always accounting and Reckoning what she hath 
already had given her by me before my Death as a part 
of ye s'd sum of 220 lbs. to be paid to her out of my estate 
by my executors. 

Item. Ditto to Daughter Grace Prudden. 

Item, I give unto my Daughter Grace Prudden so long 
as she shall live and remain unmarried ye use and improve- 
ment of ye Back Room of my house y^ is called ye Kitchen 
and ye Cellar underneath yt. room, and so much of yt. 
Garden at ye North end of my house and joining at ye 
North end of my house and joining to my brother John's 
House lot, as shall extend from ye street eastward within 
half a rod of ye Pump and ye use and benefit of ye well 
with free liberty to pass to and from ye well and ye 
garden when and as often as she shall have occasion. 

Item. — I give to my Son David Prudden and to his 
heirs for ever ye Sum of Twenty pounds to be paid in 
cattle. 

Item. — All ye rest and remainder of my estate whatso- 
ever which I have not in this my will heretofore disposed 
of both real and personal, moveable and immovable, I 
give Bequeath and Dispose of unto my three sons Samuel, 
Peter, and David and to their heirs and assigns, equally 



APPENDIX, . 143 

to be divided between them, always accounting and reckon- 
ing ye house and barn and house lot which I gave to my 
son Sam'l. afores'd as a part to make him equal with his 
older brethren viz. To my son Sam'l. Prudden and his 
heirs and assigns forever, with ye house, barn and house 
lot land in Milford as afores'd which I have already given 
him one third part. 

Item — One 3rd part thereof to my son Peter Prudden 
and to his heirs and assigns to have and to hold forever — 
ye other to David Prudden. 

Item. — My will is that that 3rd part of Real Estate 
which I have in this my will given to ye use of to my wife 
Hannah Prudden during her life, after her decease shall 
go to my three sons, Samuel, Joseph and David, equally to 
be divided between them. 

Item. — My will is to hereby nominate, constitute and 
appoint my dear and loving wife Hannah and my three 
sons Samuel, David and Peter Prudden to be ye only and 
sole executors to this my last Will and Testament whom I 
appoint, order and ordain to pay all my debts, funeral 
charges and legacies which I have in this will disposed to 
my children, and I do hereby make void all other wills 
and every will heretofore made by me and do notify, con- 
firm and establish this and no other to be my last Will 
and Testament. 

In Witness Whereof^ I Samuel Prudden have hereunto 
set my hand and seal ye Day and Date being first written. 
Signed, Sealed, Pronounced 
and Declared by Sam'l. Prudden to 

be his last Will and Testament Samuel Prudden. 

in ye presence of 
Joseph Treat. 
Enoch Prudden. 
Johnathan Prudden. 



144 PETER PRUDDEN. 

XVII. 

Bill of sale of a slave bought by Samuel Prudden' 

IN 1776. 

Know all men by these Presents. That we, Jabez Hamlin 
and Susanna his wife, Chauncey Whittlesey and Martha 
his wife all of the Colony of Connecticut for the considera- 
tion of the sum of Fifteen pounds lawfull money rec'd. 
to our full satisfaction of Sam'l. Prudden of Milford in 
Sd. colony. Do give, grant, bargain, set over and deliver 
unto him the said Samuel Prudden, his heirs and assigns 
one negro man named Rock for and during the term of 
his natural life, To have and to hold the above named 
negro man for and During the Term aforsd to his and their 
own proper use benefit and Behoof free from all Incum- 
brances whatsoever. And we the Sd Grantors Do for our 
Selves and heirs hereby promis and engage to Defend the 
Title of the Said Negro to him the Sd. Sam'l. Prudden his 
heirs and Assigns against the Claim and Demand of all 
persons whatsoever. In Witness whereof we have here- 
unto sett our hands and seals this 9th day of July, A. D. 
1776. 

Signed, Sealed and Del'd Jabez Hamlin (Seal) 

in the presence of Susanna Hamlin^ " 

Joseph Whitmore, Chauncey Whittlesey^ " 

Jasper Walling. Martha Whittlesey^ " 

XVIII. 

Inventory of the Real and Personal Estate of Samuel 
Prudden late of Milford deceased taken by us the sub- 
scribers as follows : — viz : — (This was Samuel* who died 
in 1774.) 

I blue Cloth Coat & Vest £ 2. 15 

I brown Camblet Coat and a remn't 

Camblett IS 



APPENDIX. 145 

I black Flow'd Pnissell Vest 6 

I black do Breeches 3 

I blue Qoth Breeches 2 6 

I blue Cloth great coat 10 

I Mixed Flannel Coat 12 

I do, Vest 6 

I brown flannel, do 2 6 

I black Calliminco, do i 6 

I Leather Breeches 4 

I Toe Cloth, do i 3 

I Deerskin, " 16 

I pr. Old shoes I 

I Holland shirt. 8 

I do 4 6 

1 check shirt 5/ & i do. 2/ 7 

2 Toe Cloth shirts, a. 3/ 6 

I Old Beaver Hatt 3 

I pr. black stockings 3 

1 pr. blue yearn d 2 6 

2 pr. mix'd yern do. at 2/6 5 

I blue spotted Handk'f 9 

1 silk odl, do 9 

7 platters & 2 Basons Pewter 22 lb. at 15 d. i 76 

3 do, 7 lb. at 1/ 7 

10 Pewter Plates, 7-1/2 lb. at 1/6 11 3 

4 do. 2 lb. at 1/ 2 

5 do. narrow Rim'd, 4-1/2 lb. at 16 d. . . ,6 

5 do. Plates, 3-1/2 lb. at 11 d 3 2-1/2 

2 Pewter Porringers, at 10 d i 8 

3 Old Basons, 3 lb. at 1/ 3 

I Qt. Pewter Pott 3 6 

I ditto 2 6 

I pint, do I 

4 lb. Old Pewter, at 9 d 3 

£ 12 7 10. 
10 



146 PETER PRUDDEN. 

I silver Tankard w't. 28 oz. 11 pw't. at 8/2 in 13 

I do cup, 3 oz. 8 pw't. at 6/8 i 

6 do spoons, 8 oz. 12 pw't. at 7/8 3 

I pr. silver buckles 

I Gold seal Ring, w't. 5 pw't. 22 Gr i 

I large brass Kettle, w't. 35-3/4 lbs. at 1/3 2 

I Old do, w't. 24 lb. at gd 

I do. do w't. 15-1/4 lb. at 9 d 

I " do w't. 9-3/4 lb. at 15 d 

I do. w't. 2 lb. 60 oz. at 15 d 

I small do 

I Tea Kettle 

I small Iron kettle 

I larger do. crack'd 

I Frying Pann 

I Iron Bason 

I Porridge Pott 

I small Iron do '. 

I pr. Tongs 

I Peal 

I pr. Tongs brass head 

I Trammell, w't. 6-1/2 lbs. at 6 d 

I do, 9-3/4 lb. at 6 d 

I pr. brass head andirons 

I pr. Iron do 

I large Elbow Chair 

6 black Slat back chairs, at 2/6 

6 Rail back do. at 3/ 

6 White Chairs, at 1/ 

I Warming Pan 

I Tobacco Tongs 

I box Iron & Heaters 

1 Iron Spit 

2 Old pr. sheep shears, at 9 d 

I small Iron skillet 



2 


8 


5 


I 


12 




10 


6 


4 


8 


18 




II 


5 


12 


2 


2 


II 




6 


12 




2 


4 


2 




2 




I 


6 


6 




I 


4 


I 


6 


4 




2 




3 


3 


4 


10 


12 




7 




3 


6 


15 




18 




6 




3 


6 


I 


6 


4 




I 


6 


I 


6 


I 





APPENDIX, IA7 

I Tin Lanthorn 2 6 

I Wooden Gallon bottle 2 

1 do. 1/2 gall'd. do i 6 

2 do. 2 gall'd. do. at 1/ 2 



£ 28 19 3 

I Dressing Table, Cherry Tree £ 16 

I Round dining Table 12 

I Square table 4 6 

I smaller do 4 6 

I Chest Drawers Cherry Tree 2 

I large Chest 6 

I Trunk 6 

1 ditto 6 

2 Chests at 6/ 12 

I Chest with i Drawer 16 

I small stand i 

I Old glass & 6 small Pictures 3 

I small Bed Goose feathers, 15-1/2 lb. ati/6 133 

I Bed, do, 43-1/2 lb. at 1/ 2 3 6 

I Boulster hens feathers, 8-1/2 lb 4 

1 do do. 8-1/2 lb 4 

2 Pillows goose feathers, 4-3/4 lb. at 6 

I black & white Coverlid 12 

I black & white Check'd 8 

I white Blankett 5 

I black & white spotted Coverlid 10 

I white Blankett at S. Pruddens 3 

I under bed Pigeons' Feathers, 45 lb. at 5 d. 18 9 

I second bottom Bedsted 6 

I Trundle Bedsted 3 6 

I Bed goose Feath'rs, 53-1/2 lb. at 9d.. .. 2 o 1/2 

I Boulster 2 6 

I Bedstead Cord & Under Bed 12 



148 PETER PRUDDEN. 

2 Pillows, 3-1/2 lb 4 6 

I Red & White Counterpin 12 

I set Red & White Bed Curtins, & Vallins i 4 

I bed Pigeon's Feathers, 62 lb. at 4 d i o 8 

I Boulster, do, 8 lb 2 

I Pillow goose Feathers 3 

I Do. hens do. 3-1/2 lb i 2 

1 Bedsted & Underbed 6 

2 Old Blankets 3 6 

£20 5 11-1/2 

I black & white Strip'd Colverlid i 6 

I Cotton table Cloth 5 

I do. do , 3 4 

I large Diaper, do 6 

I do 12 

I d. Linnen, do 4 

I small Diaper, do 3 

1 Linnen bed Cloth 9 

4 Diaper Napkins, at 1/6 6 

2 Linnen do. with 2 Strips thro Each at 1/6. . 3 

1 Cotton do 2 

2 Linnen, do i 6 

3 Diaper Toweles, at 1/6 4 6 

I do I 

I Linnen do 9 

I pr. Holland Pillow Bears 4 6 

20 Linnen & Cotton do. at 1/ i 

I pr. Cotton sheets i 

I pr. Sheets, No. i i5 

I pr. do. 2 14 

I pr. do. 3 15 

3 sheets, 4 at 6/6 19 6 

I pr. do. 5 IS 



APPENDIX. 149 

I pr. do. 6 14 

I pr. do. 7 12 

I pr. do. 8 13 

I pr. do. 9 13 

I pr. do. 10/ 14 

I pr. do. II 13 

I pr. do. 12 13 

I pr. do. 13 12 

I pr. do. 14 13 

I pr. do. 15 12 

I pr. do. 16 12 

I pr. do. 17 II 

I pr. do. 18 7 

I pr. do. 19 7 

I pr. do. 20 9 

I pr. do. 21 9 

I sheet 6 6 

30 yrs. Linnen Cloth, at 20 d 2 10 



i2I 10 



142 lb. Praw Brass Kettles, at 2/1 £14 15 10 

30 lb.' Brass Rim'd. & bail'd, at 1/9 2 12 6 

214 lb. 10 d. Nails, at 7 d 6 4 10 

40 lb. 4 d. do. at 10 d i 13 4 

half Box, 6 by 8 Grass 2 6 

2 part, do II 6 

3 Tea kettles, 12 lb. at 4/ 2 8 

9 yds. blue Cloth, at 14/ 6 6 

1-1/2 yds. do. at 12/ 18 

14 yds. black silk Crape, at 1/10-1-2 i 6 3 

9-1/2 yds. black Bussell, at 2/ 19 

10 yds. brown Allopeen, at 3/6 i 15 

12 spotted blue & white handkerchiefs, at 2/6 i 10 

7 pr. black silk gloves, at 5/6 i 18 6 



150 PETER PRUDDEN. 

I pr. Worst'd stockings 4 6 

8 yellow silk handk'fs., at 5/3 2 2 

5 fine tooth combs, at 13 d 5 5 

1/4 lb. thred, No. 45, at 40/ 10 

1/2 lb. do. 24, at 18/ 9 

1/4 lb. do. 13, at 9/9 2 5 

5 black knives & forks 3 4 

5 horn handle do 3 4 

5 white bone do 3 4 

1 large Bible 15 

1 1 Jack knives, at 5 d 4 7 

5 horn handle knives & forks 3 4 

3 yds. Princess Linnen, 13 d 3 3 

6 yds. do. at 10 d 5 i 

2 Remnants Dowlas, 9 yds. at 18 13 6 

3 do. 16 yds. at 15 d i 

17-3/4 yds. Long Lawns, at 4/6 3 19 10 

3-1/2 yds. Holland, at 2/8 9 4 

S-1/2 yds. checks, at 18 d 8 3 

2-1/2 yds. brown shalloon, at 2/ 5 

4-3/4 yds. brown Flow'd Bussell, at 2/6 11 10 

5-1/2 yds. Green Shalloon, at 2/ 11 

3 Sythes, at 1/6 4 6 



i59 2 

6 yds. Check Flannell, at 2/6 i 15 

5 yds. Bearskin (narrow) at 3/ 15 

7 yds. brown Flannell, at 3/6 I 4 

3 yds. do. at 4/ 12 

6-1/2 yds. whitned Toe Cloth, at 16 8 

6 yds. brown Toe Cloth, at 1/ 6 

2 black gall'n. glass bottles, at 2/6 5 

I stone Jugg I 

Earthen Plates, glass, &c. on Mantlepiece, 

Parlows 3 



APPENDIX. 151 



1 Two Qt. delph bowls 

2 Qt. do. at 9 d 

1 Old Carbine 

10-1/2 barr's. Porks, at 48/ 25 

2 M. 3 foot shingles, at 55/ 

1 hhd 

1/2 do 

16 Syder barr's. at 1/6 

5 Meat do. at 1/6 

15 bush. Wheat, at 4/ 

58 bushs. Messlin, at z/^ 

25 bush's. Rye, at 2/6 

2 Toe Cloth Sacks, at 4/ 

9 do. Baggs, at 1/ 

I Old Loom & Slays 

I Churn 

I great Wheal 

30 bush's. Corn, at 2/6 

30 Flax Old, at 6 

40 bush's. Oats, at 1/4 

24 lb. Wool, at 1/6 

5 New Milk, Trays, at 1/ 

I Real 

I small Wheel 

155 lb. hogs fatt, at 4 d 

I half Bushell 



I Adds 

I Broad Ax 

I Old spade 

I Maltesing Ax 

I Wood Ax , 

I Beetle & 5 Wedges 





I 


4 




I 


6 




4 




25 


4 




5 


10 

4 
2 




I 


4 






7 


6 


3 






10 


3 




3 


2 


6 




8 







9 






12 






2 






2 




3 


15 




2 







2 


13 




I 


16 

5 
3 
6 




2 


II 

2 


8 


i68 


19 


6 


.. £ 


4 
4 
I 
2 

4 
7 










6 












8 



152 PETER PRUDDEN. 

I Drawing Knife i 6 

I Inch & half Augre i 9 

I half inch do i 

I Old Chizells 2 

I Hammer & spike Gimblet i 

I Saddle i 

I Old do 7 

I do. do 5 

I Bridle 2/ & i do. 1/ 3 

I Crosscut Saw (Old) 2 6 

1 Grind Stone 5 

7 shoates wt. 490 lbs. at 2 4 i 8 

2 Sows (white) at 16/8 i 13 4 

8 small shoats, at 24 lb. Ea'h. at 4/ i 12 

17-3/4 lb. linnen yearn, at 1/ 17 9 

5-1/2 lb. Toe yearn, at 6 d 2 9 

8-1/4 lb. Woolen do. at 15 d 10 4 

I draft Chain 2 hooks, 12-3/4 lb. at 6 d 6 4 

I do. do. Old 2 do. 7-3/4 lb. at 4 d 2 7 

1 do. do. 8-1/4 lb. at 5 d 3 5 

2 pr. Traces, at 3/6 7 

1 Leather Coller 3/6 & i d. 2/ 5 6 

2 Ring Yoaks, at 2/ 4 

I draft do i 6 

I pitch fork 1/6 & i do. 7 d 2 i 

I Coarse Hetchell 4 

I finer do 4 

IS Harrow Teeth, 30 lb. at 2 d 5 

I Ox Coart Teackling &c 3 10 

i 18 ID 

I Plow & Plow Irons £ o 12 

I ditto do. 8 

250 lb. Flax, at 6 d 6 5 

a Parcell old books 6 



APPENDIX, 



153 



I Plain Looking glass 18 

I silver head Cane 12 

I Note of hand & Jnt. from Barnab & 

Baldwin, Jun'r 4 I3 

I ditto & Jnt'r. from and 'w. Baldwin 14 4 

I do. & Jnt. from Landa Beach i 8 

I Corn Fan 6 

I Iron Shovell 4 

I Old Corn Baskett i 

I Old Ax 3 

30 bush's. Com (New House) at 2/6 3 IS 

I pr. Oxes, I brown, & i Ryed 10 10 

I pr. do. I Stag, & i white back Ox 9 

I Crook back'd. Steer 3 

I Red 3 

I Steer, — a Starr on forehead 2 13 

I Cow. Red, white back 3 5 

I Ditto, Yellow back, white tail 3 7 

I Ditto, Red, white tail 3 7 

I Ditto, Red, speckle back 3 

I Ditto brownish 3 

I Heifer. Yellow, white Belly & tail 2 16 

I Ditto, Red, white back 2 10 

I Farrow Cow, brown 2 15 

I Ditto, Red 2 15 

I Ditto, Red white face 3 

I Ditto, Pyed, white face 2 12 

3 Calves, I black, i Red, i Red, white face 

& tale 4 10 

3 Ditto, I whiteback, i red, & i red, white 

face, at 26/ 3 18 

I pr. Steers, dark Red, 3 years old 5 5 

3 Steers, i brown, i red, & i red, white 

back 2 years old at 43/ 6 9 



8 
6 

5 



iii4 8 7 



154 PETER PRUDDEN. 

2 Heifers, i Red, & i Red, white tal 3 

yrs. old £ 5 

I Steer, small Red, 2 years Old .... 113 

I black Bull i 17 

4 Heifers, 2 years old, at 34/ 6 16 

3 score Sheep, at i 6 18 

I Old Roan Mare 3 

I Brown Horse white slip in face. ... 7 

I Old black Mare 4 

I Old brown ditto 2 

1 Four year Old ditto 5 10 

2 Colts at 40/ 4 



Brought from page i 

2 



3 
4 
5 
6 

7 
8 



i58 


16 




12 


7 


10-1/2 


28 


19 


3-1/4 


20 


5 


11-1/2 


21 


10 


7 


59 


2 


7 


68 


19 


6 


18 


10 


1/2 


114 


8 


7 



i 403 4-3/4 



I ps. Land 1-1/4 Acres home Lott with 

Old house & Barn £ 140 o 

I ps. ditto 30 acres at Adam Plain, at i 4 120 

I ps. ditto I Acres, at Mile Bridge, is 35 

I ps. ditto 10 Acres at the Point, i 8 80 
I ps. ditto, 2-1/2 Acres at Little 

Bridge, i 8 20 

I ps. Meadow, 4 Acres, at Indian Side, 

£ 5-10 22 



APPENDIX, 155 

I ps. Meadow, 4-1/2 Acres at Ditto, £ 5 22 10 

I ps. Land, 1-1/4 Acres, at West End 

Neck, £ 12 15 

I ps. ditto 9-1/2 Acres at Town plain 

with House, & Barn 275 

I ps. ditto, 18 Acres, at Town plain at 

£ 6-10 117 

I ps. ditto, 8 Acres, at Long Hill, £ 2-10 20 

I ps. ditto, 18 Acres, at Bace, £6 108 

I ps. ditto, 28 Acres, at Grassy Hill, £ 6 168 
I ps. ditto, 6 Acres, at Turkey Hill 

adjoying John Prudden's Land, 

at i 4 24 

I ps. ditto, 12 Acres at Turkey Hill 

adjoyning Josiah Nortrip's Land, 

at i 5 60 

I ps. ditto, 9 Acres at Turkey Hill 

Adjoyning Derby Road, at £ 3 ... . 27 

I ps. ditto, 4 Acres at Turkey hill 

adjoyning Deacon Smith, at 40/ . . 8 

I ps. ditto, 16 Acres at Buck Hill, at £ 5 80 

I ps. ditto, 8 Acres at George's Cellar, 

^3 24 

I ps. ditto, 6 Acres, at Cramberrt, £ 4 24 

1 ps. ditto, 12 Acres at Horam hill £ 3 36 
21 Pieces, 215 Acres Land & Meadow 

2 Rights in the Two bitt Purchase. ... 40 

£ 46s 10 
Milford April i, 1775, Amount movable 403 o 4-3/4 

£ 1868 10 4-3/4 
A true Copy of the Original 

Examined by John Whiting & Clerk. 



15^ PETER PRUDDEN. 

XIX. 

Reprint of inscriptions upon tombstones in the 
Milford Cemetery, bearing the name Prudden, taken 
from the pamphlet of inscriptions prepared by 
Nathan G. Pond of Milford, Conn., in 1899. 

Here lyes buried 

ye body of Mr 

Samuel Prudden* who departed this 

Life Octo^'' 17^^ A. D. 1742. 

Aged 69 years & 2 mos. 



Here lyes ye body 

Grace Pruddenf 

Daugh^ of Mr 

Samuel & Mrs 

Hannah Prudden 

who died Nov^'' 

18. 1742 aged 20 

years & i month. 



Here lyes buried 

ye body of 

John Prudden$ 

who departed this Life 

Jany 16**' A. D. 1762 in y« 

g2nd yg^j. Qf J-jis ^gg^ 

* Son of SamueP and Grace (Judson) Prudden, 

t Dau. of SamueP and Hannah Clark. 

$ Son of SamueP and Grace (Judson) Prudden; 

; m. Mary, dau. of Samuel and Mary (Clark) 
Clark. 



APPENDIX, 157 

Here lyes intere'd the body 
of the Rev Mr Job Prudden* 
late worthy Pastor of the 
Church of Christ in the second 
society Milford. He had his education 
at Yale College in New Haven & 
continued in the work of the Minist 
ry almost 27 years. A bountiful 
benefactor to mankind well belo 
ved in his Life and much lamented 
at his death which happened on 
the 22,''^ day of June Anno Domni 
1774 in the 59'^^ year of his age 



Here lyes ye body 

of Sibella Prudden 

daugh"- of Mr John & Mrs Mary Prudden 

who died June 4*^ 

1740 aged 7 years 

10 months & 4 day^ 



In memory of 
Samuel Pruddenf 
who in prospect of a 
better world departed 
this mortal Life August 
14*^ 1774. in the Gy^^ 
year of his age. 
Unshaken as the Sacred hill 
And firm as mountains be 
Firm as a rock the soul shall rise 
That leans O Lord on thee. 

* Son of John Prudden^^ and Mary Clark; m. Esther, 
dau. of Nathaniel and Rebecca (Burwell) Sherman, whose 
sister m. Joseph Bellamy. 

t Son of SamueP and Hannah (Clark) Prudden ; m. 
Sarah, dau. of Joseph and Sarah (Smith) Beard. 



158 PETER PRUDDEN. 

In memory of 

Hannah Prudden wife of 

John Prudden 

who died 

Oct y^^ 1790 

aged 72) years. 



In memory of 

John Prudden* 

who died 

Sept. 3. 1786 
in the 79*'^ year 

of his age. 



This monument is erect- 
ed to perpetuate 
the memory of Mr 
Joseph Pruddent 
who departed this 
Life January 16*'' 1775 
in the 30*'' year 
of his age. 
Death is a debt to nature due 
Which I must pay & so must you. 



In memory of 
Sarah Prudden 
who with a happier 
world in view depar 
ted this mortal state 
July 27^^ 1788 in the 
80*^ year of her age. 
Our age to seventy years is set 
How short the term how frail the state 
And if to Eighty we arrive 
We rather sigh & groan than live. 

* Son of John^ and Mary (Clark) Prudden. 
t Son of Samuel Prudden"* and Sarah Prudden 



APPENDIX, 159 

In memory of Sarah 

and Anne Prudden daughters 

of Mr. Samuel & Mrs Anne Prudden 

They were lovely & pleasant in their lives 

and in their death they were not divided 

Seized by a distemper which baffled 

human efforts they suddenly departed 

this Life on the 26*^ of January 1788 

the former in the 6*'' & the latter in 

the 4*^ year of her age. 



Sacred to the memory 
of Mrs Anne Prudden 
the amiable consort of 

Mr Samuel Prudden 
who departed this Life 
May 15*^ 1794 
aged 35 years. 
Death thus hast conquered me 
I by thy dart am slain 
But Christ will conquer you 
& I shall rise again. 



INDEX. 



Alsop, George 33, ii5 

Bill of sale of negro slave 144 

Bishop, Rev. John 58, 61 

Boyse, Joane, will of 111-113 

Boyse, Joanna 16, 17, 34, 35, 54-61 

Boyse, John 17, 107-1 10 

Coley, Samuel 103 

Coley, Samuel, children of 103 

Cheever, Ezekiel 37, 48, 1 16-120 

Davenport, Rev. John 13, 21, 43, 48, 50 

Davenport, John, Jr 55 

Dedham records iS 

Dickinson, John 121-124 

Dickinson, Joseph 136, 138 

Dickinson, William 133 

Edgton 17, 60 

Halifax ^ 17, 108, 1 1 1 

Hector, the ship 12 

Inventory of estate of Samuel Prudden in 1774 144-155 

Inscriptions on tombstones in Milford cemetery. .. .156-159 

Jamaica, L. 1 67, 68 

Kingswalden 7 

Kirby Moorside 16, 60 

Lane Family Papers 120-124 

Letter of Peter Prudden to Richard Mather 37 

Martin, possible name of ship 12 

Mather's Magnalia, Extract from 39, 40, 41 

Milford Church Covenant 23, 24, 25 

Milford, laxity in allowing votes to non-church mem- 
bers 36, 37 



i62 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Milford, manner of life 32, 33 

Milford, purchase of land 22 

Milford, settlement of 25 

Names of descendants of Peter Prudden who have 

borne the surname Prudden 163 

Names of descendants of Peter Prudden who have 

had other surnames 166 

Names of those who have married Pruddens 168 

Newark 69 

Porter 65 

Providence Island 11 

Prudden, James 8, 19, 28, 103, 104 

Prudden, James, children of, Anne, Elizabeth 103 

Prudden name, first mention of 6 

Prudden name, derivation of 5 

Prudden, Peter 5-53 

Prudden, Thomas 7 

Prudden, Thomas, will of 105-107 

Prudden, Tovi 5 

Quinnipiac 16 

Raynor, John 17, 120 

Slough, William 103 

Southfield 60 

Tibbals, Thomas 25 

Treat, Robert 42 

Wethersfield 20 

Willett, Thomas 56, 57 



INDEX. 



163 



Names of Descendants of Peter Prudden who 

HAVE BORNE THE SURNAME PrUDDEN. 



Abagail' 64 

Abagail* 71 

Adoniram* 71 

Agnes' 82 

Albert Bristol" 99, 102 

Alice Maud' 192 

Amy' 99 

Annabelle' 92 

Anne' 78 

Arthur Bailey' 93 

Arthur E.* 98 

Asher Moon' 98, 100 

Augustus' 93 

Benetia Pearl' 100 

Benjamin* 71 

Burritt R' 100 

Catherine Newton^ 91 

Charles Eliot' 85 

Charlotte' 87 

Qara E 100 

Clyde Edward' loi 

Cornelia Ann' 88 

David* 73 

Dennis' 100 

Dewitt C. S.' 98, loi 

Dorothy Elizabeth' 102 

Earl Dewitt' 102 

Earle Hulbard' 100 

Edith' 99 

Edna L.' 97 

Edna May* 100 



Edward Hulbard' 97 

Edward Payson' 93 

Edwin' 87 

Edwina' 99 

Elinor' 99 

Elizabeth' 63 

Elizabeth' 81 

Elizabeth Bull' 99 

Elsie' loi 

Emily' 87 

Emily Nancy' 96 

Enoch* 75 

Ephraim Pease' 82 

Eunice (or Emma?)' ....83 

Ferris Giles' loi 

Fletcher'' 7^, 77, 81 

Fletcher Newton' 81, 91 

Fletcher' 91 

Florence E.' 100 

Frances Edna' 96 

Frances Mabel' 102 

Frank' 93 

George Henry' 98, 102 

George H.' 102 

George Gold' 99 

George Peter' 88, 93 

Giles' 90, 97 

Gladys' loi 

Grace* 73, 156 

Grace Ann' 92 

Grace L.' lOO 



164 



PETER PRUDDEN. 



Halsey B. S.' 98 

Halsey George® loi 

Hannah* y2) 

Hannah' 81 

Hannah' 83 

Harriet Eliza^ 97 

Helene Maud" 102 

Henry'' 90, 96 

Henry Johnson^ 

I, 42, 93, 94, 104, 105 

Hiram McCollum^ 98 

Isaac* 71, 139 

James Davis^ 90 

James Edwin'' 86 

James Elihu Burritt^ 96 

James Henry® 97 

Jane Almira^ 87 

Joanna^ 63 

Joanna^ 71 

Joanna* 71 

Job* 7Z, 74, 75, i57 

John* 64, 66-71 

John' 72, 72,, 156 

John* yz, 76, 158 

John-^ 78, 83 

John' 83 

John Andrew^ 90 

Johnathan* 75 

John Newton'' 91 

Joseph' 71 

Joseph* 71 

Joseph* 72) 

Joseph' 75, 158 

Joseph' 79, 86 

Joseph' 84, 91 



Joseph' 86 

Joseph' 87 

Joseph Strong'' 91 

Julia Maria' 86 

Julia Maria® 92 

Keziah' 76 

Kezia* 71 

Laura' loi 

Lillian Eliza® 95 

Lilian Margaret' 99 

Lewis' 90, 98 

Mary* 63 

Mary' 72 

Mary* 75 

Mary E.' 83 

Mary Caroline' 87 

Mary Goodrich® 97 

Mary Jane® 93 

Mary Strong' 83 

Mildred* 64 

Mildred' loi 

Mildred Anita' loi 

Moses* 71 

Nancy' 81 

Nancy' 89 

Nathan Sherman' ....85, 92 

Nehemiah'' 77, 78, 82 

Newton' 78, 83 

Newton Alphonso' 91 

Orange Dwight' 89 

Orrin Dwight® 98, 102 

Orrin Neil' 102 

Paul Erwin' 102 

Peter* 62 

Peter' 72 



INDEX. 



165 



Peter* y2) 

Peter' 79, 88 

Rachel* 71 

Roy Asher' 100 

Russel Weld* 102 

Samuel' 64, 65, 66 

Samuel' y2, 156 

Samuel' y2 

Samuel* yz, i44 

Samuel" 75, 76, 78 

Samuel' 78, 79. 84 

Samuel Bailey' 92 

Samuel Smith^ 84 

Sarah* 64 

Sarah' 71 

Sarah* 71 

Sarah* jT) 

Sarah' 75 

Sarah' 78 

Sarah^ 92 

Sarah Elizabeth^ 85 



Sarah Jane' 92 

Sarah Helen® 102 

Sarah Loraine' 97 

Sarah Treat^ 81 

Sidney Clark^ 84 

Susan'^ 85 

Sybilia* 75, I57 

Theodore Mitchell" 99 

Theodore Philander* 

53, 94, 99 

Theophil Mitchell' 95 

Victor® loi 

Walter Lewis' 99, 102 

Weston Davis® loi 

William Carey^ 87, 93 

William Hopkins' 102 

William Henry'' 92 

William Kieth' 93 

Willis Giles' 98 

Willis Edward® 100 

Wilson Hiram® 100 



i66 PETER PRUDDEN. 

Names of Descendants of Peter Prudden who 

HAVE HAD other SURNAMES. 



Allen, Edna (Prudden)*, George', Lee P.', Susan Edna'. .97 

Allen, Sarah (Prudden)^ 64 

Ailing, Abagail (Prudden)^ 71 

Ailing, Carolyn E.' 85 

Ailing, Charles Booth^ Charles H.' 86 

Ailing, John^ Joseph^ 71 

Ailing, Julia Maria (Prudden)^ 86 

Ailing, Kenneth Slade' 86 

Ailing, Louise Maria* 85 

Ailing, Prudden' 71 

Ailing, Sarah (Prudden)' 85 

Ailing, Susan* 86 

Baldwin, Charles Booth' 86 

Baldwin, Elizabeth' 64 

Baldwin, Harold Ailing', Helen', Julia Prudden' 86 

Baldwin, Mildred ( Prudden) ==, Richard', Sarah', Syl- 

vanus' 64 

Baldwin, Susan (Ailing)* 86 

Beardsley, Ailing Prudden', Elizabeth Coley', Louise 

M. Ailing* 85 

Beardsley, Susan (Prudden) (Smith) i, 52, 66, 85 

Brown, Jewett Scranton*, Mary E. (Prudden)', Mary S.*.84 

Carpenter, Angeline (Parsons)' 83 

Colton, Jane Almira', Edward Prudden*, Jane Jeanette*..87 
Curtiss, Charles Lyell', Ethel Loraine', Florence 

Eglantine' 97 

Curtiss, Mary Elizabeth', Mary G. (Prudden)* 97 

Davis, Anson Riley', Delia M.', Harpin', Homer', 

Marcus' 80 

Davis, Martha E.', Samuel Prudden', Sarah A.', Shel- 
don', Sophia' 80 



INDEX. 167 

Ezelle, Annabelle (Prudden)^ Marie Belle", Percy 

Powell' 92 

Hart, Edith Brainard', George Prudden', John Prudden^.po 
Hart, Nancy (Prudden)', Nancy Eglantine', Seth C.^ 

Susan E." 90 

Hart, Percival Churchill' 90 

Hale, Mary S. Brown' 83 

Hubbell, Abagail (Prudden)', John', Joseph' 64 

Mills, Addison', Harriet (Parsons)' 83 

Parsons, Angeline'', Harriet^ Nehemiah Prudden^ Philo\83 

Seawel, Frances Edna (Prudden), Mabel Prudden 96 

Searle, Charies E.', Donald A.'^ Edward B.'\ Emily 

N. (Prudden)' 96 

Searie, Fred H.', Genevieve''', Henry A.', Henry A., 

Jr.'", Robinson Prudden' 96 

Scranton, Jewett', Mary', Mary E. (Prudden)' 84 

Smith, David Prudden', Susan (Prudden) 85 

Thompson, Charles P.', Catherine N. (Prudden)', 

Fletcher A.', Newton Prudden' 91 

Walker, Abagail (Prudden)', AbagaiP, Robert', Sarah'.. 64 



i68 



PETER PRUDDEN. 



Names of those who have married Pruddens. 



Allen, Gideon 64 

Allen, W. H 97 

Ailing, Amos H 85 

Ailing, Charles B 86 

Ailing, Samuel 71 

Beard, Sarah Jz, 75, 158 

Baldwin, Charles T 86 

Baldwin, Elnathan 71 

Baldwin, Sylvanus 64 

Bassett, Mary J 93 

Baxter, Marie Antoinette. 96 
Beard, Sarah ....74, 75, 158 

Beardsley, George L 85 

Beardsley, Lucius N 85 

Bicknell, Almira 81 

Booth, Margaret 94, 99 

Bowman, Elizabeth 91 

Bristol, Elizabeth 95 

Bulkley, Emma Brainard.90 

Brown, G. S 84 

Bull, Margaret H 94, 99 

By water, Annie M. . .98, loi 

Camp, Gideon 73 

Carpenter, Justus 83 

Clark, Anna 75, 78, 156 

Clark, Hannah 7Z 

Clark, Mary 72, 72, 

Chapman, Luman 80 

Chatfield, Mary 80 

Church, Mariette 80 

Col ton, Erastus 72, 7Z 

Coxhead, John 80 



Crane, Eleazur 81 

Curtiss, Charles Finney . .97 

Davis, Anson 80 

Davis, Charity 79, 88 

Davis, Florence E. . .98, loi 

Davis, Martha E 80, 86 

Deming. Clarissa 91 

Ezelle, Evan 92 

Ferris, Ida 98 

Field, Peter 81 

Field, Stella 99, 102 

Fitch, Francelia 100 

George, Nellie V 98, loi 

Green, Sarah M 80 

Hale, William E 84 

Hart, Seth C 89 

Hemenway, Charlotte. 79, 87 

Hill, Johnathan 96 

Hill, Josephine Slade ....86 

Hine, Sarah, 75 

Hopkins, Henrietta 99 

Hubbell, Richard 64 

Hubbell, Johnathan 81 

Hulbard, Sarah 96 

Hunt, B. W 92 

Johnson, Eliza 93 

Judson, Grace 65, 72 

Kieth, Amelia 92 

Learned, W. P 92 

Letts, Jennie P 98, loi 

Moore, Nathaniel 71 

Morse, Clara 88 



INDEX. 



169 



Morton, Addie 97 

Munger, Anna 79, 87 

Newton, Eunice 78 

Newton, Hannah 76, 158 

Northrop, Elizabeth. . .78, 83 

Nutman, James 71 

Parsons, Anne 91 

Parsons, Roswell 82 

Parmalee, Moses 81 

Pease, Agnes 82 

Piatt, Samuel yz 

Powers, Helen 90 

Prichard, Roger 103 

Quade, Ida 98 

Rogers, Enoch E 88 

Savage, G. F. S 82 

Scovell, Susan L 90 

Scranton, Erastus.27, 29, 83 



Searle, Edward P 96 

Seawel, W. Q 96 

Sherman, Esther 73 

Simonton, Isabella 92 

Southwick, Laura 91 

Smith, David 85 

Smith, Edith 96 

Stone, Naomi 79, 86 

Stoughton, Juliette 91 

Strong, Mary 78 

Strong, Nancy 91 

Terry, Harriette C 95 

Treat, Sarah 76 

Thompson, George 91 

Walker, Joseph 64 

Walker, Zecheriah 63 

Whitney, Jennie E 93 

Wilson, Lottie 98 



Apr -17 1901 



%' 



) 1901 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




009 159 645 3 # 



